Brooklyn Navy Yard
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Brooklyn Navy Yard, also known as the New York Naval Shipyard (NYNSY), the New York Navy Yard and United States Navy Yard, New York, is located 1.7 miles northeast of the Battery on the Brooklyn side of the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the East River. The area is part of Brooklyn Community Board 2.
The Navy Yard was established by the federal government in 1801. By the American Civil War, the Yard had expanded to employ about 6000 men. On the eve of World War II, the yard contained more than five miles (8 km) of paved streets, four dry docks ranging in length from 326 to 700 feet (99 to 213 meters), two steel shipways, and six pontoons and cylindrical floats for salvage work, barracks for marines, a power plant, a large radio station, and a railroad spur, as well as the expected foundries, machine shops, and warehouses. In 1938, the Yard employed about ten thousand men, of whom one-third were Works Progress Administration (WPA) workers. At its peak, during World War II, the Yard employed 70,000 people, 24 hours a day.
The Yard was the site for the construction of Robert Fulton's steam frigate, Fulton, launched in 1815. The nation's first ironclad ship, the Monitor, was fitted with its iron cladding here. In 1890, Maine (ACR-1) was launched from the Yard's ways. In 1937 the battleship North Carolina (BB-55) was laid down. The battleship Iowa (BB-61) was completed in 1942. On January 12, 1953, test operations began on Antietam (CVA-36) which emerged in December 1952 from the Yard as America's first angled-deck aircraft carrier.
Unfortunately for its workers, the Brooklyn Navy Yard made extensive use of asbestos in the manufacturing and repairing of its ships during the twentieth century. While the federal government successfully resisted responsibility in court for the extensive and often mortal health problems that resulted in the following years, thousands of retired workers have successfully sued the private businesses that supplied asbestos products to the U.S. Navy.
The Navy decommissioned the Yard in 1966 and sold it to the City of New York. It then became an area of private manufacturing and commercial activity. Now the Yard has over 200 tenants with more than 3,500 employees, and is managed and operated by the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation for the City of New York.
The Yard has three piers, owned by New York City and operated by Seatrain Shipbuilding and Coastal Drydock and Repair Corporation, and a total of 10 berths ranging from 350 to 890 feet long, with ten-foot deck height and 25 to 40 feet (7 to 12 meters) of depth alongside. A Federal project maintains a channel depth of 35 feet (10 m) from Throgs Neck to the Yard, about two miles from the western entrance, and thence 40 feet (12 m) of depth to the deep water in the Upper Bay. Current in the East River is strong and congestion is heavy. Access to the piers requires passage under the Manhattan Bridge (a suspension span with a clearance of 134 feet or 41 m) and the Brooklyn Bridge (a suspension span with a clearance of 127 feet or 39 m).
[edit] Commandants of the U.S. Navy Yard, New York: 1921–1945
- R. Adm. Carl T. Vogelgesang 1 July 1921 – 27 November 1922
- R. Adm. Charles P. Plunkett 27 November 1922 – 16 February 1928
- Captain Frank Lyon 16 February 1928 – 2 July 1928
- R. Adm. Louis R. deSteiguer 2 July 1928 – 18 March 1931
- R. Adm. William W. Phelps 18 March 1931 – 30 June 1933
- R. Adm. Yates Stirling, Jr. 30 June 1933 – 9 March 1936
- Captain Frederick L. Oliver 9 March 1936 – 20 April 1936
- R. Adm. Harris L. Laning 20 April 1936 – 24 September 1937
- R. Adm. Clark H. Woodward 1 October 1937 – 1 March 1941
- R. Adm. Edward J. Marquart 2 June 1941 – 2 June 1943
- R. Adm. Monroe R. Kelly 2 June 1943 – 5 December 1944
- R. Adm. Freeland A. Daubin 5 December 1944 – 25 November 1945
[edit] External links
- The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation
- Ships Constructed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
- Maps and aerial photos
- Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps
- Topographic map from TopoZone
- Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA
- Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth
