departmentofstate

War Department Building at 21st and Virginia Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. (LOC)

from The Library of Congress

• 4 older comments, and then…
• perfgeek said:

  It wouldn't surprise me if even at the height of WWII, it wasn't nearly as paranoid a "Fortress Washington" as it is today.

• ArchiTexty said:

  This is now the State Department building. It was completed in the late 1930s, yet the War Department still needed to build the Pentagon to keep up with its growth and employees.

• perfgeek said:

  Given where the building is relative to the Potomac River, that plane could simply be on approach to National Airport, or back then even Bolling Air Force Base. Even today, looking in that (probable) direction you would likely see planes on approach to National. Still, that doesn't condone "Fortress Washington" :(

• mins3rdkid said:

  My mom worked here for a period of time during WWII. She worked in the section that notified family members of soldiers deaths.

• Zealous Control said:

  I wish it were still named the War department.. a more accurate term.