The Little Octagon house in the center of the Pentagon "A.K.A." Ground Zero Cafe

 

I happened to see this on Quora and thought it was a pretty neat little Cold War Trivia.  I have never been or worked at the 5 sided puzzle palace.

At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union kept at least two nuclear missiles permanently aimed at a tiny, octagonal "house" in the dead center of the Pentagon.

The Pentagon is the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense and one of the largest office buildings in the world. Its famous five-ring design surrounds a five-acre open-air plaza. Sitting right in the middle of that plaza was a mysterious little "house."

Russian intelligence analysts reviewing satellite imagery noticed a highly suspicious pattern. Every single day, a massive number of top-ranking military officers, defense officials, and generals would all leave the main building and converge on this small structure at the exact same time. They would huddle around it for a while and then disperse back into the Pentagon.

To Soviet intelligence, the conclusion was obvious. Why else would the top military brass of the United States gather in a heavily guarded central courtyard at the same time every day?

They assumed the structure had to be the entrance to a deeply buried underground bunker, a secure briefing room, or the Pentagon's top-secret command center. Because military lore held that the Soviets had locked multiple warheads onto those exact coordinates, Pentagon employees gave the location a darkly humorous nickname: "Ground Zero."

The highly classified meeting spot was actually a hot dog stand.

The officers and officials weren't gathering for top-secret briefings; they were just getting lunch. With over 20,000 employees working inside the labyrinth of the Pentagon, walking all the way to the main cafeteria took too long. The tiny building in the courtyard—which sold hot dogs, burgers, and sodas—was simply the most convenient place for officers in the inner rings to grab a quick bite and get some fresh air.

While the idea of Soviet missiles targeting a hot dog stand sounds like an urban legend—and it’s entirely possible the Soviets simply targeted the center of the Pentagon because it was the center—the story became a beloved piece of Cold War folklore. The old hot dog stand was eventually torn down in 2006 and replaced with a modernized snack bar, but the spot is still affectionately known as Ground Zero.

The original Pentagon hot dog stand, known as the Ground Zero Cafe, in the center courtyard before it was torn down in 2006. Source: Wikimedia Commons.