New York Naval Shipyard

The United States Navy Yard, also known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the New York Naval Shipyard, was a shipyard located in Brooklyn, New York, 1.7mi east of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear's Hook in Manhattan. It was bounded by Navy Street and Flushing and Kent Avenues, and at the height of its production of warships for the United States Navy, it covered over 200acre. The tremendous efforts of its 70,000 workers during World War II earned the yard the nickname "The Can-Do Shipyard."HistoryNavyFollowing the American Revolution, the waterfront site was used to build merchant vessels. Federal authorities purchased the old docks and 40acre of land for $40,000 in 1801, and the property became an active U.S. Navy shipyard five years later, in 1806. The offices, storehouses and barracks were constructed of handmade bricks, and the yard's oldest structure (located in Vinegar Hill), the 1807 federal style commandant's house, was designed by Charles Bulfinch, architect of the United States Capitol in Washington, DC. Many officers were housed in Admiral's Row.