On October 6, 2009 we took a field visit to the Brooklyn Navy Yards to see the National September 11th Memorial Museum waterfall mock-up. It was a beautiful fall day and a great morning to view the mock-up. It was very nice to see the waterfall mock-up and the attention to detail that is going to the project. You really get an idea of how grand and yet solemn the site is going to be!
At the Waterfall Mock-up.
The mock-up is located adjacent to the Old Naval Hospital. Located in front of the Naval Hospital is the Barrier Forte Monument.
About the Brooklyn Navy Yard (BNY): The Brooklyn Navy Yard, once known as America’s premier shipbuilding facility, is today known for so much more. With such diverse businesses as movie studios, furniture manufacturers, ship repairers, architectural designers, electronics distributors and jewelers, the Brooklyn Navy Yard isn’t just filled with a storied past. It's also filled with a promising future.
The History of BNY
1625: Sarah Rapelje, allegedly the first European born in the Nieuw Netherlands colony is delivered on this bay in the area of Brooklyn known by the Lenape Indians as "Rennegachonk".
1637: Walloon Jansen de Rapelje purchases 335 acres of Rennegachonk territory from Dutch West India Trading Company. The land is renamed Waal Boght, from the dutch meaning either “Bend in the River” or “Bay of Walloons”. This later becomes Wallabout Bay.
1776-1783: NEW YORK CITY’S OCCUPATION AT THE TIME OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION - As many as 11,000 die on the British prisoner ships moored off Wallabout Bay, the most infamous being the Jersey, where American soldiers, merchants and traders are imprisoned for disobeying the British embargo.1781: John Jackson and his brothers purchase from Cornelius Remsen a parcel of the Rapelje land where they build the area’s original shipyard on the muddy marshlands.
1798: The US Government commissions from Jackson the 28-gun frigate USS Adams. She serves with distinction, sailing to the West Indies during the Quasi-War with France, and later patrolling the East Coast to protect American commerce. Finally, she is burnt by her crew to avoid British capture in the War of 1812.
1806: Lieutenant Jonathan Thorn, US Navy, takes command of the United States Navy Yard at New York, working under verbal orders from the Secretary of the Navy Yard. He is Commandant for one year only, and in 1811 is killed with his crew on John Jacob Astor's Tonquin near Vancouver Island.
1814: Congress allocates funds for the construction of the United States’ first steam-powered warship, the Fulton Steam Frigate, also known as Demologos and Fulton the First. Though her trials prove steam technology sound, the Fulton tours only once around New York Harbor and is then after kept at the Yard as a receiving ship.
1820: The Ohio, first ship constructed at the Yard and put to use, is launched.
1824: The Government purchases from Sarah Schenck the 25 acres of property on which the Naval Hospital now stands.
1837: ADVENT OF STEAM ENGINEERING The first U.S. steam warship assigned to sea duty, the 9-gun side-wheel steamer Fulton II is launched.
1838: MARITIME MEDICINE ADVANCES The Government builds the Naval Hospital.
1841-1843: Matthew C. Perry serves as Yard Commandant.
1857: USS Niagara is launched and soon off to England to lay the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable.
1860-1866: The Yard serves as a key depot for the distribution of stores and supplies to the Union fleet. The Naval Laboratory at the Yard prepares most of the medicines used by the Union Navy during the Civil War.
1862: THE CIVIL WAR IRONCLADS The USS Monitor is outfitted and commissioned (having been built, clad and launched at the Continental Shipyard in Greenpoint) prior to the famous "Battle at Hampton Roads" against the CSS Virginia (ex-Merrimac).
1895: EXPLOSION SPARKS THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR - The launch of the USS Maine begins the "battleship era". Its sinking three years later off Havana Harbor sparks the Spanish-American War. "Remember the Maine!"
1906: The USS Connecticut, built in 1904, is commissioned, and serves as flagship of the Great White Fleet.
1907: Opera singer Eugenia Farrar sings the first song broadcast over wireless radio. “I love you truly” broadcasts to test Dr. Lee DeForest’s arc radiotelephones on the USS Dolphin, docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The test is successful and the Government commissions DeForest to supply the Great White Fleet with 26 of the radiotelephones.
1914-1918: During WWI the Yard workforce increases from 6,000 to 18,000.
1915: The USS Arizona is launched.
1941: CALL TO ARMS - December 7, the Japanese sink the USS Arizona, engaging the United States in WWII.
1944: The USS Missouri is launched.
1945: JAPAN SURRENDERS - September 2, Japan signs its unconditional surrender on the USS Missouri a.k.a. "Mighty Mo", thus ending the war.
1955-1960: Aircraft super carriers USS Saratoga, Constellation and Independence are built here during the Korean War.
1960-1965: Near the end of its days as an active naval base, the Yard builds 6 amphibious transport Landing Platform Docks, the last launched being the LPD Duluth.
1966: BROOKLYN NAVY YARD CLOSES - Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara closes the Brooklyn Navy Yard along with over 90 other military bases and installations. At the time of its closing, the Brooklyn Navy Yard employs more than 9,000 workers and is the oldest continually active industrial plant in New York State.
1967: THE NEW YORK CITY PURCHASE Two hundred and sixty acres of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, housing nearly all of its industrial sites, are sold to the City of New York for $24,000,000.
1971: The Yard is reopened as a City-owned industrial park under the management of a Local Development Corporation called Commerce Labor and Industry in the County of Kings or "CLICK."
2007: A THRIVING INDUSTRIAL PARK - The Brooklyn Navy Yard today operates as a thriving industrial park with over 40 buildings, 230 tenants and 5,000 employees. As it undertakes the Yard’s greatest expansion since WWII, BNYDC is pursuing its mission to create and retain industrial jobs in New York City with a strong commitment to environmental sustainability and the celebration of the Yard’s rich history.
Don't forget to visit:
Brooklyn Navy Yard at Building 92
Selected Historic BNY Images available through flickr.com
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