

USSR Believed a Top Secret Room was at center of Pentagon - was a hot dog stand - rb2e
http://www.defense.gov/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=1049

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SagelyGuru
> “They thought this was the Pentagon’s most top secret meeting room, and the
> entire Pentagon was a large fortress built around this hot dog stand.”

I like this story. It neatly captures strangely symbolic, even poetic,
meaning. What does Pentagon and its entire defense edifice ultimately protect?
The American way of life, which is mostly hot dog stands and burger bars.

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bobdvb
> The Pentagon was declared a national historic landmark in 1992, and because
> the courtyard is one of the five historically protected features of the
> building, the hot dog stand must be replaced by a building of roughly the
> same size, and exactly the same shape as the Pentagon, Eaton said.

> “In general, the design will kind of replicate what we have here right now,
> but it’s going to be much more modern and a lot bigger. It will really give
> us an efficient food service delivery system for the Pentagon,” said David
> Gabel, the renovation program manager for Pentagon renovation and
> construction.

Really? Apparently in the US preserving a landmark means making it "much more
modern and a lot bigger"? I don't understand you guys sometimes.

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derefr
It's the courtyard that's the preserved feature, not the stand itself.
Presumably the requirements just translate to "from the perspective of a
visitor to the courtyard, there should be a pentagonal thing in the center,
yey-big, with an owl on it." It could be a real building or a facade, it
wouldn't matter, except inasmuch as it affects the courtyard.

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zwdr
It obviously is a top secret illuminati bunker as you can easily see by the
owl on top. Wake up sheeple!

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bonchibuji
Seems like someone at HN is reading TodayILearned subreddit diligently...

[http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1il1fm/til_du...](http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1il1fm/til_during_the_cold_war_the_ussr_thought_the/)

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akinder
As someone who deleted their reddit account 2 days ago to escape the cesspool,
I'm glad that interesting articles are floating this way.

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ybred
> The new building will cost about $1.2 million to complete, he said.

hmmm ... 1.2 million for a hot dog stand ... let the ridicule begin.

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a3n
It has to survive the missiles aimed at it.

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ovoxo
The title of this post is misleading because it implies that the USSR believed
it was a hot dog stand.

Either use the original title from the article or add the words "it was
actually just a" before "hot dog stand".

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mathattack
At least the Russians weren't looking to nuke the Wiener Circle.
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wieners_Circle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wieners_Circle))

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vacri
Or, alternatively, it was a known place where the brass congregate, and hence
a good target anyway.

Or, alternatively, it was in the middle of the Pentagon and hence the bulls-
eye for a missile aimed there anyway.

The story does smack of a little hubris.

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jerrytsai
What is "Top Secret" is what went into those hot dogs...

