The Pentagon: A History (75 page)

McShain went to see Somervell
Telephone transcript, McShain calling Groves, 23 Dec. 1941, I, CEHO.

Remedy this situation

With fears of a Japanese
van der Gracht, White interview, AOC; Furman, author interview.

A team of engineers
memo to Robins, 17 Dec. 1941, I, CEHO; Robins memo to Somervell’s office, 20 Dec. 1941, I, CEHO; telephone transcript, Major Donald Antes calling Renshaw, 22 Dec. 1941, I, CEHO.

The pace inside
telephone transcript, McShain calling Groves, 23 Dec. 1941, I, CEHO; Leisenring, F&R interview, CEHO.

Shortly before Christmas
McShain note to Groves, 21 Dec. 1941, I, CEHO; Hauck, letter to Renshaw, 31 Dec. 1941, I, CEHO.

On December 31
Ibid.

Groves received
Groves memo to Renshaw, 31 Dec. 1942, I, CEHO.

Oh to hell with it

On the morning of Thursday
Renshaw, note to Somervell, 1 Jan. 1942 and Somervell, note to Renshaw, 1 Jan. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160; aerial photographs of site, 24 Dec. 1941, SDF, NARA RG 160.

Progress was soon evident
audit report No. 2, 21 Jan., 1942, I, CEHO.

More than a half-century
Condrell, author interview.

“The orders came through”
van der Gracht, White interview, AOC.

Renshaw had received word
telephone transcript, Major Donald Antes calling Renshaw, 22 Dec. 1941, I, CEHO; Renshaw memo to Chief of Engineers, 9 Jan. 1942, I, CEHO; Robins memo to Somervell’s office, 9 Jan. 1942, I, CEHO.

Then Stimson
Stimson memorandum for the president, 2 Jan. 1942, OF 25, FDR Lib.; FDR note to Stimson, 5 Jan. 1942, OF 25, FDR Lib.; telephone transcript, Groves calling Renshaw, 9 Jan. 1942, I, CEHO.

Each time the order
Renshaw memo to Chief of Engineers, 9 Jan. 1942, I, CEHO; Robins memo to Somervell’s office, 9 Jan. 1942, I, CEHO.

The proposal for the bomb shelter
Stimson memorandum for the president, 14 Jan. 1942, OF 25, FDR Lib.; Harold Smith memorandum for the secretary of war, 17 Feb. 1942, OF 25, FDR Lib.

The resolution was a boost
Col. F. S. Strong memo for Somervell, 21 Jan. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160.

Perhaps the biggest
Renshaw memo for Maj. Franklin Matthias, 11 Aug. 1942, I, CEHO; McShain address to engineers, McShain papers, HML.

A growing army of workers

More than six thousand
audit report No. 2, 21 Jan., 1942, I, CEHO.

Any skilled laborer
WP,
7 Mar. and 27 Apr. 1942; Hauck, letter to Rodmens’ Local Union, 20 Feb. 1942, I, CEHO; Hank Neighbors, author interview, October 2003.

At the bottom
Department of Labor memo, 2 Feb. 1942, I, CEHO;
Cong. Rec.,
1 Oct. 1942, 7692; Neighbors, author interview; audit report No. 2, 21 Jan., 1942, I, CEHO; Allan, author interview.

As a payroll witness
Neighbors, author interview.

Thousands of men
Renshaw testimony, Office of the Inspector General, investigation report, 25 May 1942, box 1188, records of the Office of the Inspector General; NARA RG 159 (hereafter known as cafeteria IG report); Ralph Smith testimony, cafeteria IG report, NARA RG 159.

They had their hands
Furman, author interview.

McShain figured
audit report No. 2, 21 Jan., 1942, I, CEHO; Joseph A. Fox, “World’s Largest Cafeteria to Feed 40,000 Nearing Completion,”
Star,
13 Sept. 1942.

Even finding the canteens
Walker, author interview; Brian Kelly, “Pentagon Veterans Recall Construction Days,”
Star,
30 Apr. 1967.

All signifying chaos

“Washington in wartime”
Dwight D. Eisenhower,
Crusade in Europe,
16.

By 1941, the population
“Engineers’ Statement on Pentagon Roads System,” 5 Jan. 1944, I, CEHO; Alden Stevens, “Washington: Blight on Democracy,”
Harper’s Magazine,
December 1941; Brinkley,
Washington Goes to War,
105.

“A languid Southern town”
Ibid.,
xii.

A war mindset
WP,
21 and 17 Dec. 1941.

The most immediate problem
Stevens, “Washington: Blight on Democracy”
WP,
20 Jan. 1942.

Writer John Dos Passos
John Dos Passos,
The State of the Nation,
1943, excerpt in D.C. History Curriculum Project,
City of Magnificent Intentions,
420.

Workers turning up
WP,
27 Apr. 1942.

The government’s need
Roosevelt,
Complete Presidential Press Conferences,
vol. 18, 108.

A long gray line
Marquis Childs, “Washington Is a State of Mind,” 1942, in
Katharine Graham’s Washington,
288.

“It was said around town”
Brinkley,
Washington Goes to War,
117.

For all the dead
Davidson, oral history, 155, CEHO; Colglazier, oral history, 51, MHI.

Somervell, on
Detroit News,
7 May 1944; Somervell White House identification card, Somervell papers, MHI.

Anytime he put on
Kerr, oral history, Smithsonian.

“Not many were fooled”
Norris,
Racing for the Bomb,
347.

All centered here

More than
Marshall, memo for McIntyre, 3 Apr. 1942, Marshall papers, box 80, folder 32, GCM Lib; NCPPC minutes, 4 Feb. 1942, 4.

In late January, Roosevelt
Renshaw, memo to Davidson, 31 Jan. 1942, I, CEHO; Howard Peterson memo to Coy, 6 Feb. 1942, and Coy memo for the president, 20 Feb. 1942, OF 25, FDR Lib.

An overwhelming task

The concrete edifice
Matter, author interview; Brenza, author interview;
WP,
27 Jan. 1942.

General Marshall was informed
Marshall note to Somervell, 26 Jan. 1942, GCM Papers, box 85, Somervell folder, GCM Lib.; Stimson diary, 7 Feb. 1942; Somervell service records, Somervell papers, MHI.

The loss
Matter, author interview.

Four days after Pearl Harbor
Stimson diary, 11 Dec. 1941. The others Stimson mentioned were Jacob Devers, who would command the 6
^th
Army Group in Europe, and Mark Clark, who would be deputy commander for the Allied landings in North Africa and would command the U.S. Fifth Army in Italy.

Marshall, fed up
Pogue,
Ordeal and Hope,
289–301;
The Papers of George Catlett Marshall,
127–129; War Department press release, “Reorganization of the War Department,” 2 Mar. 1942, Somervell papers, MHI.

Learning in January
Ohl,
Supplying the Troops,
60–2.

On February 28
Pogue,
Ordeal and Hope,
296–97, United States News, 27 Mar. 1942;
NYT,
Somervell obituary, 14 Feb. 1955.

“I will say this”
Millett,
The Army Service Forces,
7.

At the suggestion of Marshall
Brenza, author interview;
Newsweek,
7 Dec. 1942; Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.”

Somervell soared
Life,
13 Apr. 1942;
Time,
15 June 1942;
New York Daily News,
17 Apr. 1942.

In little over a year
Alfred Goldberg, author interview, 22 Jan. 2004; Somervell, letter to Marshall, 13 May 1952, Somervell papers, MHI.

Somervell was again
Somervell, “Construction Goes to War,”
The Constructor,
July 1942; Somervell remarks to Metropolitan Section of American Society of Civil Engineers, 20 Dec. 1944, Somervell addresses, vol. 4, MHI. Richard Groves, author interview.

“The undertaking”
F&R,
The Corps of Engineers,
499; Somervell, “The War Construction Job,”
The Constructor,
July 1944, in Somervell addresses, vol. 4, MHI.

Among many other
telephone transcript, Antes calling Renshaw, 20 Jan. 1942, I, CEHO.

On March 25
Somervell, memo to Reybold, 25 Mar. 1942, I, CEHO.

The next day
Strong, memo to Groves, 26 Mar. 1942, I, CEHO.

Just when it looked
WP,
30 Mar. 1942;
Time,
15 June 1942.

From the bottom of the Potomac River

Slipping past Alexandria
C. E. Planck, “Potomac Blockade,”
WP,
22 Feb. 1942. The description and all quotations from the river scene comes from Planck’s account.

Builders were desperate
WP,
24 Jan. 1942; Furman, author interview.

The War Department could indeed
Christensen, “Miscellaneous Data Pentagon Building” 7 Oct. 1944, I, CEHO; Frierson,
The Pentagon,
17; The Skyscraper Museum Web site,
www.skyscraper.org
. The amount of concrete poured is surpassed by some enormous public-works projects, among them the Hoover Dam, which required three and a quarter million cubic yards of concrete. The Grand Coulee Dam, the largest concrete structure in the United States, required twelve million cubic yards.

The location chosen
“The Pentagon Building,”
Airlanes,
Dec. 1942.

The Pentagon was being built
Christensen, “Miscellaneous Data Pentagon Building” memo, 7 Oct. 1944, I, CEHO; Renshaw, letter to Christensen, 23 Sept. 1944, I, CEHO.

Though the supply
WP,
24 Jan. 1942.

Floating dredges
“Concreting a 100-Acre Office Building,”
ENR,
4 June 1942; “The Pentagon Building,”
Airlanes,
Dec. 1942. F. E. Ross, “Architectural Concrete Work on the Pentagon Building,”
Architectural Concrete,
1943.

Renshaw tried using
Furman, author interview.

The constant pouring
Allan, author interview.

The carpenters set up
Allan, “Building the Pentagon” Allan, author interview.

The mass-production techniques
Allan, “Building the Pentagon” Allan, author interview.

A sudden and unexpected
F&R,
The Corps of Engineers,
546;
Cong. Rec.,
29 Feb. 1944, 2105.

After a spectacular fire
Douglas McKay memo to Groves, 13 Feb. 1942, I, CEHO; Groves memo to Renshaw, 24 Feb. 1942, I, CEHO; Furman, author interview. The five-alarm fire on Feb. 8, 1942, at the Hotel Statler at the corner of 16th and K streets required 350 firefighters to extinguish.

Their emergency preparedness
Star,
14 June 1942; Furman, author interview.

Are there really guys buried down there?

Given the vast size
Walker, author interview. Alan Renshaw, author interview.

Such stories spread
Brockwell, letter to author, 8 Mar. 2004; Bill Immen, “The Pentagon…Fact and Fancy,” 7 Oct. 1961;
Pentagram,
14 June 1984; Alan Fogg,
Fairfax Journal,
15 Aug. 1988; Marian Bailey, author interview, 1999.

The stories
Furman, author interview; Alan Renshaw, author interview.

Don’t slip on it

Workers were dying
WP,
29 Mar. 1942.

Inspecting the site
Blanchard, memo to Antes, 5 Dec. 1941, I, CEHO.

Renshaw was unapologetic
WP,
29 Mar. 1942.

Labor leaders
Ibid.;
Stimson, letter to Hall, 20 June 1942, NARA RG 107.

Further aggrieved
WP,
4 Mar. 1942.

There were racial
Renshaw testimony, cafeteria IG report, NARA RG 159; McShain, letter to Renshaw, 18 May 1942, file 291.2, NARA RG 407; Furman, author interview.

Discrimination created
telephone transcript, Antes calling Renshaw, 7 Mar. 1942, I, CEHO.

The matter was not
1936 Code of Virginia, Separation of Races, exhibit A, cafeteria IG report NARA RG 159; Goldberg,
The Pentagon,
62;
WP,
12 Mar. 1942.

The road network

An enormous road network
Goldberg,
The Pentagon,
66.

When he had sold
NCPPC minutes, 29 July 1941, 2;
WP,
4 Dec. 1941.

Planners for the War
“Access to the World’s Largest Building,”
ENR,
25 Mar. 1943;
WP,
23 Sept. 1942; “The Pentagon,” Witmer papers, OSD HO.

The design included
National Register of Historic Places Inventory, Nomination Form for Federal Properties, Pentagon Office Building Complex, 1989, box 1312, OSD HO. Cloverleaf interchanges on the Pennsylvania Turnpike date to the 1930s.

The basic plan
Thomas MacDonald letter to Rep. Albert Engel, 31 Dec. 1943, I, CEHO; NCPPC minutes, 29 July 1941, 41; “The Pentagon Project—ASF,” 24, NARA RG 160.

Roosevelt took care
Downer letter to Delano, 2 Sept. 1941, NARA DC RG 66;
Cong. Rec.
29 Feb. 1944, 2105; “The Pentagon Telephone Conversations—Groves,” Matthias and Renshaw, 10 Aug. 1942.

To speed the work
Somervell letter to MacDonald, 28 Oct. 1941, I, CEHO; Clarke, oral history, 154–5, CU; architects’ historical memo, NARA RG 200.

Colonel Edmond Leavey
Colglazier, oral history, MHI.

Groves had steamrolled
Drew Pearson, “Merry-Go-Round,”
WP,
22 May 1944.

But the roads
Renshaw message to Somervell, 25 Feb. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160; Renshaw letter to Baird Snyder, 20 Feb. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160.

This was a nice little neighborhood

To make it click
WT-H,
14 Feb. 1942.

It was a small collection
Everett Norton, oral history, ACOHP; Kast, “Not Everyone Thought It Was So Dreamy” Gilpin, unpublished paper on Queen City, 1984, Queen City vertical file, ACL.

This was not seen
NCPPC minutes, 17 Oct. 1941, 120.

Construction had been
Star,
12 Feb. 1942; Kast, “Not Everyone Thought It Was So Dreamy.”

“It was a predicament”
Gertrude Jeffress, author interview, April 2004.

The desperate residents
Star,
12 Feb. 1942.

Thomas MacDonald
WT-H,
14 Feb. 1942,
WP,
14 Feb. 1942.

There was little
Arlington County Board minutes, 7 Mar. 1942;
Star,
7 and 8 Mar. 1942;
WP,
14 Feb. 1942.

“I remember his going crazy”
WP,
4 Nov. 1999.

Renshaw was not concerned
“The Pentagon Telephone Conversations—Miscellaneous,” Renshaw and O’Brien, 21 Mar. 1942, I, CEHO.

At the end of the month
Jeffress, author interview; Celestine Dole, author interview, April 2004;
Star,
24 Mar. 1942;
WT-H,
14 Feb. 1942;
WP,
4 Nov. 1999.

With the families out
Star,
Apr. 18, 1942.

Fact sheets
“The Pentagon,” visitors’ pamphlet circa 2000.

“Whoever said it was nothing”
Jeffress, author interview.

Some change, eh?

With the arrival of spring
“Description of Sections A and B,” 25 Apr. 1942, Witmer papers, OSD HO.

So much limestone was needed
Pino-Marina, “Indiana Plant Makes Its Mark on History” Gavin Hadden, memo to Groves, 16 Apr. 1945, I, CEHO; “Description of Sections A and B,” Witmer papers, OSD HO.

Each of the façades
Ibid.;
Frierson,
The Pentagon,
16.

“This is how”
Washington Daily News,
23 Mar. 1942.

The building was 40 percent
Renshaw, memo to Somervell, 9 Mar. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160.

peak at fifteen thousand
Office of the Chief of Engineers, “Comments on Statements of Congressman Albert J. Engel on the Pentagon,” 7 Apr. 1944, 19, I, CEHO;
NYT,
23 Apr. 2006; Goldberg,
The Pentagon,
70;
Star,
5 Apr. 1942.

Renshaw—now
Renshaw memo to Somervell with accompanying photographs, 9 Mar. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160.

The architect
Groves to Renshaw, 26 Feb. 1942, I, CEHO; memo to Somervell, 8 Apr. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160; Hauck letter to Renshaw, 10 Apr. 1942.

The appropriations race
Bureau of the Budget, “Report Covering Pentagon Building,” 31 Aug. 1942, K, I, CEHO; Bergstrom memo to Groves, “Chief Architect’s Estimate of Cost,” 7 Feb. 1942, I, CEHO; McShain memo to Col. Graham, 3 Apr. 1942; Hauck, letter to Renshaw, 16 Apr. 1942, I, CEHO.

Somervell blew up
McShain letter to Somervell, 10 Apr. 1942 and Somervell reply 12 Apr. 1942, SDF, NARA RG 160.

They would not
Renshaw memo to Chief of Engineers, 16 Apr. 1942, I, CEHO; “The Pentagon Telephone Conversations—Miscellaneous,” Holmes and Renshaw, 4 Apr. 1942, I, CEHO.

Renshaw had reported on March 28
Renshaw memo to Davidson, 28 Mar. 1942, I, CEHO.

At War Department headquarters
Millett,
The Army Service Forces,
369; Groves recollections of Styer, Groves collection, USMA; Renshaw memo to Styer, 20 Apr. 1942, I, CEHO; Groves memo to Styer, 21 Apr. 1942, I, CEHO; Styer memo to Adjutant General’s office, 22 Apr. 1942, SDF, RG 160.

Gathered in haste from the four winds

“Fellow Workers”
Bergstrom letter, 11 Apr. 1942, Witmer papers, OSD HO.

At 10
A.M.
on March 20
minutes of the special meeting of the Board of Directors, AIA, 19–22 Mar. 1942, 10, 12, 14–15, 45, AIA. The account of the hearing and all quotations come from the minutes.

On March 28, the institute
AIA, confidential notice of disciplinary action, 28 Mar. 1942, I, CEHO.

David Witmer
“Personnel principally responsible for design and construction,” Oct. 1943, Hadden Notebook, I, CEHO.

Gathered in haste
Bergstrom letter, 11 Apr. 1942, Witmer papers, OSD HO.