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What difference does it make where the Pentagon is? The Statue of Liberty is physically in New Jersey waters but it is associated with NYC. Same with the Pentagon. 9/11 heavily affected DC. I was working across the street from the White House and let me tell you that everyone was petrified. First, they shut down all of the bridges into the city. Metro recieved many bomb threats so people were literally walking home. Then there were rumors of other attacks planned. I saw so many f18 that day. Since the attacks, almost every government buildings have barricades. Parts of the city that were open are now blocked off. You could go to many Federal agencies without a government ID. Capitol Hill has check points. The list goes on and on.
What difference does it make where the Pentagon is? The Statue of Liberty is physically in New Jersey waters but it is associated with NYC. Same with the Pentagon. 9/11 heavily affected DC. I was working across the street from the White House and let me tell you that everyone was petrified. First, they shut down all of the bridges into the city. Metro recieved many bomb threats so people were literally walking home. Then there were rumors of other attacks planned. I saw so many f18 that day. Since the attacks, almost every government buildings have barricades. Parts of the city that were open are now blocked off. You could go to many Federal agencies without a government ID. Capitol Hill has check points. The list goes on and on.
I don't think anyone is denying that. I was there and you're correct, DC was a mess, no doubt. But when someone makes a claim the Pentagon is in DC you gotta correct it. Also, I'd like to point out the statue sits on an island and the Pentagon is tucked near a major airport, which many still may think is in DC but not Arlington Cemetery, however.
What difference does it make where the Pentagon is? The Statue of Liberty is physically in New Jersey waters but it is associated with NYC. Same with the Pentagon. 9/11 heavily affected DC. I was working across the street from the White House and let me tell you that everyone was petrified. First, they shut down all of the bridges into the city. Metro recieved many bomb threats so people were literally walking home. Then there were rumors of other attacks planned. I saw so many f18 that day. Since the attacks, almost every government buildings have barricades. Parts of the city that were open are now blocked off. You could go to many Federal agencies without a government ID. Capitol Hill has check points. The list goes on and on.
It's not a huge deal -- I'm not one of those people who cringes when I hear "the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington."
Nor am I one of those DC residents who takes every chance he can to hate on NOVA.
It's all one interconnected area for the most part.
I was merely correcting a direct statement about the Pentagon's location for the sake of accuracy and clarity.
I don't think anyone is denying that. I was there and you're correct, DC was a mess, no doubt. But when someone makes a claim the Pentagon is in DC you gotta correct it. Also, I'd like to point out the statue sits on an island and the Pentagon is tucked near a major airport, which many still may think is in DC but not Arlington Cemetery, however.
I get what your saying about it being located across the river in Arlington, but I'm saying that it has a DC address:
1400 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301
I don't see how I'm wrong about that. The Pentagon itself is pretty much it's own city anyway. There was a debate about this on a fire website once because the Arlington firefighters wrote a book about how they were there. However, the DC firefighters joked that the Pentagon would still be burning to this day if DCFD wouldn't have take control of the scene.
My point is it affected DC just as much, if not more than Arlington. It's literally just across the river. Plenty of the people working there are DC residents. Most of the first responders were from DC. The whole thing is associated with DC. I think "attack on DC" makes plenty of sense.
I get what your saying about it being located across the river in Arlington, but I'm saying that it has a DC address:
1400 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301
I don't see how I'm wrong about that.
This is getting silly.
You said the Pentagon is "located in Washington."
It isn't. It's in Arlington.
There's a difference between a mailing address and a street address.
9/11 affected DC of course, it's the seat of our federal government and was the target of the plane that was forced down.
By the same token, I'd be willing to bet a mortgage payment that the vast majority of Pentagon employees live in Virginia. A smaller percentage live in MD, and smaller still comes from DC.
What's the point in claiming the Pentagon for Washington?
9/11 affected the whole region. Different areas in different ways.
Just forget it. I didn't think everyone would make such a big deal about it. It was partly a joke. That's why I said it IS located across the river in Arlington. However, it's address is a DC address. Didn't mean for a whole page of the discussion to be about that.
While this might sound a bit cold, there was a difference between the attacks in DC vs. NY and even the plane in PA. Mentally, I think some in DC fell back into the 'civilian vs. military' mindset. Whereas the attacks in NY were a wide cross section from bankers to janitors, the attacks in DC were primarily military and/or civilians working for the Department of Defense. In a sense, there was kind of a disconnect. It hit hard in military areas, and in some places that hosted quite a few military civilians (in my neck of Southern Maryland there were quite a few who perished in the Pentagon) but it sort of seemed to me that some in Washington had a 'it's the military, it's not DC' attitude.
Just an observation. I was in DC at the time and my wife was in NY. We were actually at the WTC on Sunday night before the Tuesday attacks just being tourists. When I went to NY the weekend after it was definitely more somber than DC, at least it felt that way to me.
I worked right downtown at the time. They told us to lock down in the building. Then rumors came through that the State Department was bombed and then the White House.
I was just down the street from the WH and bolted.
I think there remained a lingering nervousness in DC because the attacks were somewhat thwarted with the plane headed toward us being shot down and the plane that hit, supposedly, diverting from its original target and hitting the most fortified building in the world. We were worried they were going to come back to finish the job.
But, yeah, all the military on the streets, the jets flying over, the bomb threats in building after building, then the anthrax attacks. We lived in a war zone. When I went back for the holidays with my family in the Midwest, they sympathized but clearly did not understand.
I'm a newer firefighter in DC, but I was out all night celebrating an anniversary class that was at the pentagon. They definitely don't bring stuff like that up. I know I couldn't.
But, yeah, all the military on the streets, the jets flying over, the bomb threats in building after building, then the anthrax attacks. We lived in a war zone. When I went back for the holidays with my family in the Midwest, they sympathized but clearly did not understand.
It's worth noting that still goes on today. If you know where to look, you can still see the Avenger anti-aircraft missile batteries, the armed patrol boats on the Potomac, and the occasional checkpoints on Capitol Hill (have you ever seen a bicycle cop in shorts slugging a SAW M249 rifle? You will in DC).
Whenever I bring folks in from out of town I be sure to point out some of these things to sort of remind them of the disconnect between DC and the rest of the country.
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