Harry S Truman Building

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 Harry S. Truman Building from the C St. entrance
Harry S. Truman Building from the C St. entrance

The Harry S. Truman Building is the third largest federal building in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, which currently is the headquarters for the United States Department of State, maintaining foreign affairs.

In September of 2000, the headquarters of the State Department was officially named the "Harry S Truman Building," after the 33rd President of the United States. Previously, the building was unofficially called the "Main State Building". It was constructed during the 1930s with the intention that it would house the Department of War. However, the Department of War never occupied the building since, by the time construction was complete, the military had already outgrown the building. Instead, the structure was used for the Department of State.

A large addition was completed in the early 1960s, after which the original building was informally called "Old State" with the addition identified as "New State". Currently, more than 8,000 employees work in the Harry S Truman Building. The building houses over 1.5 million usable square feet of space, the corridors take up over 267,000 square feet, and the roof area is about 7 acres. There are 43 elevators, over 4000 windows and about 34,000 fluorescent light fixtures that provide interior illumination.