4
kilometers (8000 feet).
The Encyclopedia Britannica (2003 edition):
"Early parachutes--made of canvas or silk--had frames that held them
open (like an umbrella). Later in the 1800s, soft, foldable parachutes
of silk were used; these were deployed by a device (attached to the
airborne platform from which the jumper was diving) that extracted the
parachute from a bag. Only later still, in the early 1900s, did the
rip cord that allowed the parachutist to deploy the chute appear."
Capt. Albert Berry of the United States Army was the first to hop from
an airplane over St. Louis in 1912.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blparachute.htm
Pentagon
The Pentagon was completed in 16 months. It was built on a swamp and
on the area of the old Washington airport. Trucks hauled some 5.5
million cubic yards (4.2 million cubic meters) of junk and soil and
dumped it in the marshes. The building's foundation rests on 41,492
concrete piles.
The purchase of land cost $2.25 million (in 1943 dollars). The
building itself cost c. $50 million, or $83 million with outside
facilities. The Pentagon stands on 29 acres (=c.
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