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 of Virginia abandoned its plans and agreed to begin work on the northern route for Lee Boulevard. For nearly a year, state and county officials had disagreed whether the northern route rights-of-way were adequate to begin construction. The state disagreed, but Arlington County officials did not wish to spend more money in the depths of the Great Depression to acquire more rights-of-way. By actively reconsidering the southern route, however, the state of Virginia put pressure on Arlington County to fix the rights-of-way problems with the northern route. Agreement to begin construction on the northern route finally was reached on August