ISBN10: 0812973259, ISBN13: 9780812973259, [publisher: Random House Trade] Softcover Paperback. The creation of the Pentagon in seventeen whirlwind months during World War II is one of the great construction feats in American history, involving a tremendous mobilization of manpower, resources, and minds. In astonishingly short order, Brigadier General Brehon B. Somervell conceived and built an institution that ranks with the White House, the Vatican, and a handful of other structures as symbols recognized around the world. Now veteran military reporter Steve Vogel reveals for the first time the remarkable story of the Pentagon's construction, from it's dramatic birth to its rebuilding after the September 11 attack. At the center of the story is the tempestuous but courtly Somervell-"dynamite in a Tiffany box," as he was once described. In July 1941, the Army construction chief sprang the idea of building a single, huge headquarters that could house the entire War Department, then scattered in seventeen buildings around Washington. Somervell ordered drawings produced in one weekend and, despite a firestorm of opposition, broke ground two months later, vowing that the building would be finished in little more than a year. Thousands of workers descended on the site, a raffish Virginia neighborhood known as Hell's Bottom, while an army of draftsmen churned out designs barely one step ahead of their execution. Seven months ...
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Random House Trade Paperbacks. Used; Like New. Random House Trade Paperbacks. Paperback. Book Condition: Like New. Small Remainder Mark. . Date: 2008. TRADE PAPERBACK. 2008. Random House Trade Paperbacks ISBN 0812973259 9780812973259 [US]

Random House Trade Paperbacks 2008 TRADE PAPERBACK Used; Like New Random House Trade Paperbacks. Used; Like New. Random House Trade Paperbacks. Paperback. Book Condition: Like New. Small Remainder Mark. 2008. TRADE PAPERBACK.