Pentagon Tours would like you to arrive at the Pentagon Metro entrance 60 minutes prior to your scheduled tour to allow time for your group (or the group you find yourself with) to process through building security. Mid-day is generally a good time to schedule a tour, with less demand and attendant traffic congestion.

You’ll need to present a copy of your tour confirmation email and identification for each group member to the Pentagon Police personnel. Once you have cleared security, proceed into the building and turn left to find the Pentagon Tours window, located inside the Pentagon Visitor Center in the visitor waiting area.

All tours check in at the Pentagon Tours window, and if your group neglects to do so prior to your scheduled time, your tour may be canceled. At the conclusion of the tour, all guests will exit the building. Comfortable clothing and shoes are highly recommended. There is ramp access for visitors with disabilities, and visitors in wheelchairs must be accompanied by someone who will assist them.

Plan to etch the tour in your mind, since no photographs are permitted and recording devices, video, or audio, are prohibited. There’s a security briefing prior to the beginning of every tour, and all visitors must pass through a security scanning device similar to those found at airport security checkpoints. Mobile phones are allowed, but can’t be used for photos or recording.

Sign language facilitators can be added to tours to assist hearing-impaired visitors, provided that two weeks’ notice is given. Special tours can be arranged for visually impaired visitors with the same notice. The Pentagon Tour is presented in English. However, translation is permitted for tour groups that bring approved translators with them.

Plan to etch the tour in your mind, since no photographs are permitted and recording devices, video, or audio, are prohibited. There’s a security briefing prior to the beginning of every tour, and all visitors must pass through a security scanning device similar to those found at airport security checkpoints. Mobile phones are allowed, but can’t be used for photos or recording.

There are extensive commercial food/eatery facilities in the Pentagon, but visitors are not allowed to partake unless formally sponsored by a Pentagon civilian or military employee. Better to have a bite before or after you leave. Once you do exit the building, there’s more to see on the Pentagon Reservation, including the outdoor National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, which is open 24/7 free of charge. Visitors commonly attest to how moving it is.

There’s also the Air Force Memorial honoring the millions of men and women who have served in the U.S. Air Force and its predecessor heritage organizations, from the U.S. Signal Corps to the U.S. Army Air Forces.

 

Forward

When you take a Pentagon Tour, you not only gain an appreciation for the history and tradition that have developed within the nerve center of the Department of Defense, you can begin to understand the immense scope and complexity of activity undertaken there.

You also join a much larger group of notable, and notably curious, people who took it upon themselves to get a first-hand look at the icon that is the Pentagon. If its past is prelude, many millions more will come forward to visit in the future.