During much of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Washington Navy
Yard was the most recognizable symbol of the United States Navy in
the nation's capital. The shipyard built a number of the Navy's
first warships and repaired, refitted, and provisioned most of the
frigates, sloops, and other combatants of the fledgling naval
service. The masts and rigging of USS Constitution were a common
site on the banks of the Anacostia River. Booming cannon became a
routine sound in southeast Washington during the mid-19th century
as Commander John A. Dahlgren, "father of American naval ordnance,"
test-fired new guns for the fleet. The Naval Gun Factory's fire and
smoke-belching blast furnaces, foundries, and mills gave birth to
many of the fleet's weapons, from small boat howitzers to the
enormous 14-inch and 16-inch rifles that armed the naval railway
batteries in World War I and the Iowa-class battleships in World
War II and the Cold War. Rear Admiral David W. Taylor inaugurated a
new era in ship development when he used scientific measurements in
his Experimental Model Basin to test the properties of prototype
hulls. Before and after World War I, the pioneers of naval aviation
experimented in the Anacostia and navy yard facilities with various
seaplane types, shipboard catapults, and other equipment that would
soon revolutionize warfare at sea. The Washington Navy Yard has
been a witness to history-to the evolution of the United States of
America from a small republic, whose ships were preyed upon by
Barbary corsairs and whose capital was burned by an invading
British army, into a nation of enormous political, economic, and
military power and global influence. The Civil War that so
dramatically altered American society swirled around and through
the Washington Navy Yard. American presidents, first ladies,
foreign kings and queens, ambassadors from abroad, legendary naval
leaders, national heroes and villains, and millions of citizens
have all passed through Latrobe Gate during the yard's 200-year
existence. The Washington Navy Yard has also been the workplace for
tens of thousands of Americans, a familiar landmark in the District
of Columbia, and a valued member of the Washington community.
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, ship riggers, hull
caulkers, iron and bronze smiths, joiners, millwrights, machinists,
foundrymen, boilermakers, and tool and die makers; skilled workmen
and laborers; naval officers, bluejackets, and marines have earned
their livings within the walls of the navy yard. Numerous
Americans, white and black, male and female, have spent their
entire working lives at the yard building warships, manufacturing
guns, testing vessel and aircraft models, training sailors, or
administering the needs of American combatants steaming in the
distant waters of the world. Navy yard workers, as many as 26,000
men and women at one point in 1944, contributed to the success of
U.S. arms in the Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, the
Cold War, and Operation Desert Storm. Yard workers, most of them
residents of the District, Maryland, and Virginia, over the years
have helped local authorities extinguish fires, hold back flood
waters, rescue victims of natural disasters, and care for needy
members of the surrounding neighborhoods. They have helped federal
authorities put together national celebrations to mark the end of
the country's wars, repair the Capitol and other government
buildings, receive the sacred remains of unknown U.S. servicemen
from overseas, stage presidential inaugurations, and welcome
foreign dignitaries to American soil. Above all, they have loyally
served the United States and the U.S. Navy. This richly illustrated
history was written in the bicentennial year to highlight the
importance of the Washington Navy Yard and its employees to the
nation, the Navy, and the District of Columbia. It touches on the
major activities of the facility and on some of the yard's past
workers and significant visitors.
General
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