The “ground zero” hot dog stand that once stood at the center of Pentagon courtyard
18 November 2020
The original sense of ground zero is the point on the earth’s surface at or directly below a nuclear detonation. The term appears to have been invented by the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, which undertook extensive analysis, starting in 1944, to determine what impact the bombing of Germany and Japan had on the outcome of the war.
The earliest example of ground zero I have found (not all of the survey’s reports are digitized and readily available) is from a report on effect bombing had on Japan’s electrical grid that was prepared in late 1945:
The atomic bombs rendered substations within five-eighths of a mile of ground zero of the blast inoperative and put them beyond demonstrated recuperative ability of the Japanese.
And on 15 February 1946 the vice chairman of the survey, Paul Nitze, testified before the U.S. Senate and used the term:
I think we might go to some of the major points which have been raised, taking first the question as to the blast effect which was caused by the atomic bomb in relation to the blast effect which might have been caused by a 10-ton blockbuster. We have computed the distances from ground zero point at which structures of all various types were destroyed.
And on 30 June 1946 the survey published its report on The Effects of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki:
Some of the construction details (reinforcing rod splices, for example) were often poor, and much of the concrete was definitely weak; thus some reinforced concrete buildings collapsed and suffered structural damage when within 2,000 feet of ground zero, and some internal wall paneling was demolished even up to 3,800 feet. (For convenience, the term "ground zero" will be used to designate the point on the ground directly beneath the point of detonation, or "air zero.")
This report, which was unclassified, was widely reported in the press, and it is at this point that the general public begins to use ground zero. For example, there is this article from the Chicago Tribune of 30 June 1946, which is only one of several papers that used the term on that and following days:
Within a radius of one kilometer (.62 of a mile) from ground zero (the point beneath the blast center), men and animals died almost instantaneously from the tremendous blast pressure and heat; houses and other structures were smashed, crushed, and scattered; and fires broke out.
Since that original sense, the term has been used for some other, related ones. During the Cold War, the outdoor cafe in the center of the Pentagon’s courtyard was jocularly labeled Ground Zero by wags in the Defense Department. Presumably, the hot dog stand was the Soviet’s aim point. Or there is this jocular use by journalist Bob Besch from 5 June 1960:
This rusty shovel was recovered from ground zero during the Great Septic Tank Heave of 1958. Miraculously nobody was killed or maimed, but the event caused rumblings of terror throughout a three-block area, not to mention a revolting clean-up job.
More seriously, ground zero has been used to refer to the center of a calamity or struggle, as in this example by Philip Ortego from 1971 about the problems of Mexican-American education in the United States:
A new breed of teacher is needed, sensitive to the diverse educational problems of Mexican Americans. At educational ground zero, Mexican American youngsters are being wiped out. The dropout cycle of Mexican Americans can be broken, but it will take a lot of doing.
Finally, the specific use of ground zero to refer to the site of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on 11 September 2001 falls somewhere between the sense of a nuclear bomb site and the center of a calamity. The name of the first person who used ground zero to refer to the World Trade Center site is not known, and it was probably independently applied to the site by several people. From an Associated Press report on that day:
Crews began heading into ground zero of the terrorist attack to search for survivors and recover bodies. The downtown area was cordoned off, and huge, grisly rescue effort was under way.
All that is known about the origin of this specific sense of ground zero is that by the end of the day on 11 September the phrase was on the lips of millions.
Sources:
Associated Press. “New York Undertakes Massive Rescue Effort.” Iowa City Press-Citizen, 11 September 2001, Special Edition, 2A. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Besch, Bob. “How to Go Down in History.” Mansfield News-Journal (Ohio), 5 June 1960, 2. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Manly, Chesly. “Survey Denies A-Bomb Caused Jap Surrender.” Chicago Tribune, 30 June 1946, 12.
Ortego, Philip D. “The Education of Mexican Americans.” The Chicanos: Mexican American Voices, Ed Ludwig and James Santibañez, eds. Baltimore: Penguin, 1971, 167. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Oxford English Dictionary, second edition, 1989, s.v. ground, n.
United States Senate. Hearings Before the Special Committee on Atomic Energy, part 5. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 15 February 1946, 515. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
United States Strategic Bombing Survey. The Effects of Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 30 June 1946, 5. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
———. The Electric Power Industry of Japan. 9 October 1945–3 December 1945, 5. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Photo credit: Steven Donald Smith, U.S. Department of Defense.