Arlington, Va.
The rebuilding of the Pentagon after the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, 2001, consisted of 45 truckloads containing 15,000 cubic feet of stone. Every cubic foot was crafted proudly, with heart.
The project was physically as well as emotionally challenging. Pat Riley, former Drafting Supervisor at Bybee Stone, submitted the following firsthand account:
“My first trip to the Pentagon was a few weeks after 9/11. Security was intense and cameras were not allowed, but I had to get sizes and profiles for everything possible. All salvaged stones were stacked in the yard next to the building, and I spent two days sketching profiles and measuring stones.
“A couple of original 1940s stone shop drawings were provided but from a different part of the building – apparently all that was available. The information gathered in the field was then used with the original drawings to create shop drawings before contract (architectural) drawings were produced. This was a first for me.
“As the project moved on, I made three more trips to Arlington. Two trips were made to coordinate our shop drawings with the evolving contract documents, and a final trip was made to take inventory of the existing stone. A small portion of the new face was to be rebuilt with salvaged stone, which had been moved to a remote parking lot. I spent a day in that fenced parking lot going through the salvaged stone, trying to determine what could be used. During that day, three members of our military came up to the cage I was in that secured the salvaged stone and told me their stories. They each asked for a piece of the Pentagon.”
The Pentagon: Re-Made in America
Laura Bybee’s firsthand account of the rededication ceremony held at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2002, upon completion of the project.
The Replacement of Stone and Rebuilding of the Pentagon
Jim Owens, executive director of the Indiana Limestone Institute of America, details not only the project itself and its particular needs but also how the history of the limestone industry came to impact those needs.
