How The Pentagon Became The World’s Most Secure Building

The fact that it’s one of the most secure buildings on the planet and a bunny still somehow got in is one of the funniest things I’ve heard all day

Ok, now I’m not a conspiracy theorist but that sudden test of terrorism hitting the brand new anti terrorist section is super funny

I had a summer job at the Pentagon in '97, and it was laughably insecure. You could enter the building with your badge clipped to your backpack, not even showing the guard your face as you strolled in (without even a metal detector or a turnstile) Once inside, you could go down almost any of the corridors inside without restriction; the exceptions being things like the hallway with the Joint Chiefs. But functionaries like deputy secretaries were just off of ordinary hallways. They were just planning the renovations that summer... forget Kevlar or bomb-proof glass; most of them were of the "Holy Crap, this place isn't up to code" innovations like "fire doors", and "vent shutters", and "single-pane non-tempered glass is a great way to get decapitated in an explosion." sort of updates. Fun Fact: The "Hot Line" is not, in fact, a bright red telephone on the President's desk. It's a computer connected to a phone line, sitting in a closet in the Pentagon's basement; the computer replaced a literal teletype sometime in the early 90's. This closet has an extremely bored Air Force officer sitting at a desk 24x7x365, exchanging occasional test messages with their counterpart in Moscow.

"BUNNY! QUICK! TAKE A PICTURE!" "Shouldn't we eliminate it? It could be a threat." "PICTURE!"

The Pentagon is claiming the rabbit may have been dropped by a hawk, which is an interesting theory. Apparently nobody noticed it in the hallways, and it's hard to imagine how a rabbit could run through any busy building that large without someone noticing. But there are probably other explanations, too. Evidently a chicken once got into the Pentagon, though it didn't make it very far inside, certainly not all the way to the courtyard.

Sam: pentagons are the world's most important shape CGP Grey: HEXAGONS ARE THE BESTAGONS

As a former soldier, I can assure you there are still plenty of clowns in the Pentagon.

My parents visited the Pentagon back in like 1995 when they didn't really prioritize security and they literally just waltzed right into the building. No security guards, no one stopped them, and doors were all unlocked--just two graduate students walking about the hallways for like an hour before they left bc they "couldn't find anything interesting"

When you take a tour, the marine guides only walk backwards so there is no way you can sneak away. Marines walking backwards - the peak of security.

3:09 and 3:18 are of stock footage of Russian weapons and 3:09 is the TOS-1 Buratino multiple launch rocket system which is not an air defense system. Hope I get onto the next mistakes video.

Also fun fact: it’s not just Dunkin Donuts. The Pentagon is essentially a shopping mall for military people!

As someone interested in getting into the business of shipping clowns to the Pentagon, this video was very helpful for me!

One correction: Pentagon Station (a part of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, or WMATA, AKA "the DC Metro") is not closed, and actively serves the Blue and Yellow lines. The station DOES operate under special procedures, however, such as no photography or video inside or on the station grounds (or on any of the transit hub premises, as there is a bus hub just outside the Pentagon as well), as well as being closed during non-operational hours (as the DC Metro does not operate 24/7) and only being opened 10 minutes before the first train arrives in the morning. Source: WMATA's website, and me, who has used the station a number of times.

The sponsor segue here is great. "You know what else is a waste of money? Getting food delivered." ... that's why I love our sponsor that exists exclusively to deliver food to you.

There's a reason the Pentagon is a pentagon: Before the Pentagon, the then War Department (the Department of Defense wasn't called such until 1947) had multiple temporary structures built during WWI right on the National Mall. In the late 1930s, a new War Department Building was constructed in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood, now the Harry S Truman Building for the Department of State, but it didn't solve the War Department's space problem. So when WWII broke out in 1939, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson found the department's situation unacceptable, and so the need for a much bigger place was further cemented. That's why they were in quite the rush, not just WWII but what they had before was overcrowded and temporary. When they were looking for locations, they first selected the site of Arlington Farms which was a temporary housing complex for WWII female civil servants and service members. This site had an asymmetric, roughly pentagonal shape, so the building was planned accordingly as an irregular pentagon. Concerned that the new building could obstruct the view of DC from Arlington Cemetery, President FDR selected the former site of Hoover Airport instead for the Pentagon. The building retained the pentagonal layout because Roosevelt liked it and a major redesign at that stage would have been costly. Freed of the constraints of the Arlington Farms site, the building was modified as a regular pentagon. It was built between September 1941 and January 1943.

I feel like working at a Dunkin’ in the Pentagon has to be one of the better jobs out there. Very safe place to work, no bitchy customers, and you get to say you work at the Pentagon.

It’s so secure that they flew a plane into it to prove how durable it was.

US DoD: "Now, nothing can penetrate the security of the Pentagon!" Local bunny: "And I took that personally."

My brother in law was a colonel in the Air Force (flew F4’s and f16’s) and his wife is still a JAG (prosecutes misbehaving people in the Air Force, usually for sex stuff). I got to do a tour of the pentagon in 2017. For everyone who asks “why do we need RealID?!” I don’t have a good answer. But, it does in fact allow you to take a tour of the pentagon. They do have a Dunkin’. And a subway. And lots of empty 20x10’ rooms which apparently come in handy when you’re looking for a place to cry. It was the biggest building I’ve ever been in and is definitely a bullseye example of ant hill inspired bureaucracy in the United States. I stole a pocket sized, camouflaged & universally christian bible.

Can you tell us more about the Dunkin’ Donuts on pleasure island?