United States Department of Defense United States Department of Defense The Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government concerned directly with national security and the United States Armed Forces. The department is the largest employer in the world, with nearly 1.3 million active duty servicemen and women as of 2016. Adding to its employees are over 826,000 National Guardsmen and Reservists from the four services, and over 742,000 civilians bringing the total to over 2.8 million employees. Headquartered at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia,
Construction of the Virginia approaches to Arlington Memorial Bridge begin construction, but it ended after the county election in November 1931 left supervisors safe in office for another two years. Arlington County engineers quickly called the Washington Boulevard route south of the cemetery inappropriate. The Washington Boulevard route received a significant boost when, on January 27, 1933, Arlington County, the NCPC, and the United States Department of War reached an agreement on rights-of-way along the route. The agreement gave the county a right-of-way across Fort Meyer and the southwestern tip of Arlington National Cemetery and another right-of-way from the cemetery to Mount Vernon Memorial Parkway across War Department land.