Brooklyn Navy Yard facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Brooklyn Navy Yard
Brooklyn, New York City, New York
Aerial photo taken in 1918
Type	Shipyard
Site information
Controlled by	United States Navy
Site history
Built	1801
In use	1806–1966
Brooklyn Navy Yard Historic District
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. Historic district
Location in New York City Show map of New York City Location in New York Show map of New York Location in the United States Show map of the United States
Location	Navy Street and Flushing and Kent Avenues Brooklyn, New York
Area	225.15 acres (91.11 ha)
Built	1801
Architectural style	Early Republic, Mid-19th Century, Late Victorian, Modern Movement
NRHP reference No.	14000261
Added to NRHP	May 22, 2014

The Brooklyn Navy Yard (originally known as the New York Navy Yard) is a shipyard and industrial complex in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York, U.S. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlears Hook in Manhattan. It is bounded by Navy Street to the west, Flushing Avenue to the south, Kent Avenue to the east, and the East River on the north. The site, which covers 225.15 acres (91.11 ha), is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard was established in 1801. From the early 1810s through the 1960s, it was an active shipyard for the United States Navy, and was also known as the United States Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn and New York Naval Shipyard at various points in its history. The Brooklyn Navy Yard produced wooden ships for the U.S. Navy through the 1870s. The shipyard built the USS Monitor, the Navy's first ironclad warship, in 1862, and it transitioned to producing iron vessels after the American Civil War in the mid-1860s. It produced some of the Navy's last pre-dreadnought battleships just prior to World War I, and it performed major repairs and overhauls of its dreadnought and post-dreadnought battleships during World War II.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard has been expanded several times, and at its peak, it covered over 356 acres (144 ha). The efforts of its 75,000 workers during World War II earned the yard the nickname "The Can-Do Shipyard". The Navy Yard was deactivated as a military installation in 1966, but continued to be used by private industries. The facility now houses an industrial and commercial complex run by the New York City government, both related to shipping repairs and maintenance and as office and manufacturing space for non-maritime industries.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard includes dozens of structures, some of which date to the 19th century. The Brooklyn Naval Hospital, a medical complex on the east side of the Brooklyn Navy Yard site, served as the yard's hospital from 1838 until 1948. Dry Dock 1, one of six dry docks at the yard, was completed in 1851 and is listed as a New York City designated landmark. Former structures include Admiral's Row, a grouping of officers' residences at the west end of the yard, which was torn down in 2016 to accommodate new construction. Several new buildings were built in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as part of the city-run commercial and industrial complex. A commandant's residence, also a National Historic Landmark, is located away from the main navy yard site. The FDNY's Marine Operations Division and their fireboats are located at Building 292.

History

Navy

The screw sloop-of-war USS Enterprise docked at the shipyard, circa 1890

USS Oregon in the Yard in 1898

USS Texas in the Yard circa 1903

USS Connecticut and Nebraska in the yard in 1909

Following the American Revolution, the waterfront site was used to build merchant vessels. Federal authorities purchased the old docks and 40 acres (160,000 m²) 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.

Military chain of command was strictly observed. During the yard's construction of Robert Fulton's steam frigate, Fulton, launched in 1815, the year of Fulton's death, the Navy Yard's chief officers were listed as: Captain Commandant, Master Commandant, Lieutenant of the Yard, Master of the Yard, Surgeon of the Yard & Marine Barracks, Purser of the Navy Yard, Naval Storekeeper, Naval Constructor, and a major commanding the Marine Corps detachment.

The nation's first ironclad ship, Monitor, was fitted with its revolutionary iron cladding at the Continental Iron Works in nearby Greenpoint. By the American Civil War, the yard had expanded to employ about 6000 men. In 1890, the ill-fated Maine was launched from the yard's ways.

On the eve of World War II, the yard contained more than five miles (8 km) of paved streets, four drydocks 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 1937, the battleship North Carolina was laid down. In 1938, the yard employed about 10,000 men, of whom one-third were Works Progress Administration workers. The battleship Iowa was completed in 1942 followed by the Missouri, which became the site of the Surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945. On 12 January 1953, test operations began on Antietam, which emerged in December 1952 from the yard as America's first angled-deck aircraft carrier.

At its peak, during World War II, the yard employed 70,000 people, 24 hours a day.

During World War II, the pedestrian walkways on the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges spanning the East River offered a good overhead view of the navy yard, and were therefore encased to prevent espionage.

Brooklyn Naval Hospital

The Brooklyn Naval Hospital, constructed 1830–38 and rebuilt 1841–43, was decommissioned in the mid-1970s. It was one of the oldest naval hospitals in the United States. The 60,000-square-foot complex was designed by Martin E. Thompson. The hospital had its beginning in 1825 when the Secretary of the Navy purchased 25 acres adjacent to the Brooklyn Naval Yard. The hospital was active from the Civil War through World War II with the Navy Surgeon General reporting in 1864 an average of 229 patients, with 2,135 treated during the year. The hospital also counted on its staff some of first female nurses and medical students in the United States Navy.

Closure and commercial usage

Clinton Avenue gate

A study initiated by the Department of Defense under Robert S. McNamara in late 1963 sought to accomplish savings through the closure of unneeded or excess military installations, especially naval ship yards. On November 19, 1964, based on the study, the closure of the navy yard was announced, along with the Army's Fort Jay on Governors Island and its Brooklyn Army Terminal, all to take effect by 1966. At the time, the yard employed 10,600 civilian employees and 100 military personnel with an annual payroll of about US$90 million. The closure was anticipated to save about 18.1 million dollars annually.

Seymour Melmen, an engineering economist at the Columbia University Graduate School of Engineering, looked into the plight of the shipyard workers at the NYNS and came up with a detailed plan for converting the then naval shipyard into a commercial shipyard which could have saved most of the skilled shipyard jobs. The plan was never put in place. The Wagner Administration looked to the auto industry to build a car plant inside the yard. No U.S. car manufacturer was interested, and foreign car manufacturers claimed that with the conversion of the dollar, it was too expensive. The Navy decommissioned the yard in 1966, after the completion of the Austin-class amphibious transport dock USS Duluth. The Johnson administration refused to sell the yard to the City of New York for 18 months. When the new Nixon administration came into power, they signed the papers to sell the yard to the city. Leases were signed inside the yard even before the sale to the city was signed.

Base housing at Ryerson Avenue gate

In 1967, Seatrain Shipbuilding, which was wholly owned by Seatrain Lines, signed a lease with the Commerce Labor Industry Corporation of Kings (CLICK) which was established as a nonprofit body to run the yard for the city. CLICK's lease with the newly formed Seatrain Shipbuilding was not very business friendly. Seatrain planned to build five very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and seven container ships for Seatrain Lines. It eventually built four VLCCs (the largest ships ever to be built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard), eight barges, and one ice-breaker barge. The last ship to be built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard was the VLCC Bay Ridge, built by Seatrain Shipbuilding. In 1977, Bay Ridge was converted from a VLCC to a floating production storage offtake vessel. Bay Ridge was renamed Kuito and is operating for Chevron off of the coast of Angola in 400 meters of water in the Kuito oil field. Employment inside the yard peaked in 1976, with nearly 6,000 workers with Seatrain Shipbuilding and Coastal Dry Dock and Repair accounting for 80% of the employment.

In 1979, Seatrain Lines closed its gates, ending the history of Brooklyn shipbuilding. In 1972, Coastal Dry Dock and Repair Corp leased the three small dry docks and several buildings inside the yard from CLICK. Coastal Drydock only repaired and converted US Navy vessels, and closed in 1987. CLICK had been replaced by the nonprofit Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation in 1981. By 1987, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation failed in all attempts to lease any of the six dry docks and buildings to any shipbuilding or ship-repair company.

Description

The Brooklyn Navy Yard has five piers labeled C, D, G, J, and K from west to east, with ten berths in total. The piers range from 350 to 890 feet (110 to 270 m) long, contain a 10-foot (3.0 m) deck height, and have 25 to 40 feet (7.6 to 12.2 m) of depth alongside. At its peak during World War II, the Brooklyn Navy Yard had nine piers and 16,495 feet (5,028 m) of berthing space. Adjacent to the piers is a homeport for the NYC Ferry system.

The Navy Yard also contains six dry docks, numbered 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, and 6 from west to east. The drydocks are now operated by GMD Shipyard Corp. Since at least the 1920s, a federal project maintains a channel depth of 35 ft (10 m) from Throggs Neck to the yard, about two miles (3 km) from the western entrance, and thence 40 ft (12 m) to deep water in the Upper Bay. As indicated in a 1917 report, the channel's depth was previously maintained at 40 feet from Throggs Neck to Upper New York Bay, with a channel width varying from 550 to 1,000 feet (170 to 300 m) from Throggs Neck to Brooklyn Navy Yard, and thence 1,000 feet to deep water in the Upper Bay.

Geographically, the Brooklyn Navy Yard is located at the western end of Long Island. It surrounds Wallabout Bay, a former tidal marsh on the southeastern shore of the East River, a tidal estuary that connects to Long Island Sound on the east and the New York Bay to the south. The bay, in turn, is located at a bend of the river just south of the Williamsburg Bridge, where the river turns from a southward alignment to a westward alignment. The surrounding area is located near the northeast tip of the Atlantic coastal plain, a flat, low-lying physiographic region that extends to the southern United States. The area was formerly fed by Wallabout Creek, which flowed downhill from the hilly terminal moraine in the center of Long Island and drained into a low, small area before reaching Wallabout Bay. This resulted in the mud flats that formerly were prevalent in Brooklyn Navy Yard, though the shipyard site straddles the geographical boundary between mud flats and tidal marshland.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard's streets are not shown on any official city maps, as all of its roads are privately maintained. The address for the entire Navy Yard is given as 63 Flushing Avenue. The Brooklyn Navy Yard can be accessed via gates at Sands/Navy Streets, Cumberland Street/Flushing Avenue, Clinton/Flushing Avenues, and Kent Avenue/Clymer Street. A brick wall used to encircle the Navy Yard, separating it from the Farragut Houses and Vinegar Hill to the west; Fort Greene to the south; and Williamsburg to the east.

Transportation

Transportation to Brooklyn Navy Yard is provided by the MTA's B67 bus, which makes stops inside the yard. The B57, B62, B69 buses stop along the yard's perimeter. The nearest New York City Subway station is at York Street, served by the F <F>​ trains. A self-driving shuttle van service operating exclusively within the area starting in 2019 but later ceased operations.

A NYC Ferry stop was initially planned to open in Brooklyn Navy Yard in 2018. A stop along NYC Ferry's Astoria route at Dock 72 was included in a NYC Ferry expansion announced in January 2019, and the NYC Ferry stop ultimately opened as scheduled on May 20, 2019. The Brooklyn Navy Yard also houses NYC Ferry's homeport, where the system's fleet is maintained.

Shuttle bus service

Since 2016, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation has operated two complimentary shuttle bus services for Navy Yard tenants and their guests. One route runs to the York Street station and the High Street station on the A and ​C train. The other route to the Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center station on the 2, ​3, ​4, ​5​, B, ​D, ​N, ​Q​, and R train; Atlantic Terminal on the Long Island Rail Road; and the Clinton–Washington Avenues station on the G train. The services utilize 30-foot Grande West Vicinity and Freightliner cutaways.

Notable structures

Brooklyn Naval Hospital

The Brooklyn Naval Hospital was established in 1825 on a site that was not initially contiguous with the main Navy Yard. A main building was completed in 1838, and was subsequently expanded with several wings, including two permanent wings built in 1840 that still exist. A two-story Surgeon's House was built in 1863. More structures were added in the early 20th century, including a medical supply depot, a lumber shed, and quarters buildings. The hospital also operated a cemetery from 1831 to 1910, when the cemetery reached its burial capacity. In 1948, the hospital was decommissioned and most of its functions were relocated to other facilities.

In 2012, Steiner Studios proposed to build a media campus at the former hospital site as an annex to its existing campus at the Navy Yard. A park on the hospital cemetery's site, the Naval Cemetery Landscape, was opened in May 2016. At the time, Steiner Studios was planning to restore the hospital buildings starting in 2017, and restoration was expected to take nearly a decade.

Brooklyn Navy Yard Center (Building 92)

The original Building 92, built in 1857 and designed by Thomas Ustick Walter, is the former U.S. Marine Commandant's quarters. The house has a floor area of 9,500-square-foot (880 m²) and is three stories high with a brick facade, a hip roof, and three window bays on each side. Building 92 is the only remnant of the 3.5-acre (1.4 ha) U.S. Marine Barrack Grounds along Flushing Avenue. The grounds was built on land acquired in 1848 and included marine officers' quarters, a barracks (former Building 91), a gate house, and a central parade ground. All of these buildings were constructed in the Greek Revival style. Building 92 used to have a nearly identical counterpart, Building 93, which was demolished in 1941 to make way for a warehouse.

Building 92 museum. The original 1857 structure is the red brick building located at right, and the 2011 annex is the metal annex located behind it and at left.

The former U.S. Marine Commandant's residence is now part of a museum dedicated to the shipyard, the Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at Building 92. Building 92 was renovated and expanded by Beyer Blinder Belle in 2011 at a cost of $25 million. The Brooklyn Navy Yard Center opened in November 2011 as a program of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation. The center offers exhibits, public tours, educational programs, archival resources, and workforce development services. The museum's main exhibit focuses on the history of the Brooklyn Navy Yard and its impact on American industry, technology, innovation, and manufacturing, as well as on national and New York City's labor, politics, education, and urban and environmental planning. The building also hosts displays and videos about the new businesses in the facility. Plans for a museum dedicated to the Brooklyn Navy Yard date to 1975, though the museum was originally proposed to be located in a different building.

The center contains a 24,500-square-foot (2,280 m²) annex with a laser-cut metal facade. The annex is connected to the original house via a 3-story lobby. The lobby includes a 22,500-pound (10,200 kg) steel anchor from the amphibious assault ship Austin (1964).

Dry docks

The Brooklyn Navy Yard consists of six dry docks located along the Brooklyn Navy Yard's northern edge, along the East River. Dry Dock 1 was the first one to be completed. This was followed by Dry Dock 2 in 1887, Dry Dock 3 in 1897, Dry Dock 4 in 1913, and Dry Docks 5 and 6 in 1941. Dry Docks 1, 5, and 6 are the only dry docks that remain in service.

Dry Dock 1

Dry Dock 4 in "flooded" state

Dry Dock 1 in "dry" state

Dry Dock 1 is located at Wallabout Bay, on the northeast side of Brooklyn Navy Yard. Completed in 1851, it is the third-oldest dry dock in the United States, behind the dry docks at the Boston and Norfolk Navy Yards. Dry Dock 1 is the smallest of the Navy Yard's dry docks. The first permanent dry dock in New York City, it cost $2 million (equivalent to $56,735,000 in 2022) to construct. Over the years, Dry Dock 1 has serviced boats such as Monitor, which fought in the Battle of Hampton Roads during the Civil War, and Niagara, which laid the first transatlantic cable.

Dry Dock 1's masonry superstructure uses 23,000 cubic yards (18,000 m³) of granite from Maine and Connecticut, as well as supplementary material from New York. The stone floor of the dry dock is 30 feet (9.1 m) wide, and the floor curves in an inverted arch shape toward the edges of the sides and the landward (southwest) end. The center of the floor is mostly flat, with a 1-foot (0.30 m) groove. Steps lead down the sides of the dry dock. At the seaward end of the dock is a gate that floats open without the use of hinges. A Harper's Magazine article from 1871 stated that Dry Dock 1 had a capacity of 610,000 US gallons (2,300,000 L) and could be emptied within two hours and ten minutes. The dry dock was 66 feet (20 m) wide and 36 feet (11 m) deep, and when the dock was filled at high tide, the depth of the water was 26 feet (7.9 m). The Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1918 described the main chamber of the dry dock as being 286 feet (87 m) long by 35 feet (11 m) wide on the bottom, and the top part as being 370 feet (110 m) long by 98 feet (30 m) wide. The pumping engine built for this drydock was the largest in the U.S. at one time.

Surveying for the dry dock began in 1826, though funding was not provided until 1836. Construction on the dry dock started in 1841, but was halted a year later because of a lack of funding. During this time, there were debates over whether to abandon work on this dry dock and construct another in Manhattan, where the new Croton Aqueduct had just opened. When construction resumed in 1844, the project was led by two civil engineers in quick succession until William J. McAlpine was appointed to the position in 1846. At the time, the project was beset by several problems, including the presence of quicksand and underground springs, as well as a faulty cofferdam design that twice flooded the excavation site with water from Wallabout Bay. The cofferdam was fixed by installing deep foundations made of gravel at the outermost cofferdam. The springs were covered with a mixture of piles, planks and dry cement under a layer of brick and Roman mortar. The quicksand was 75 feet (23 m) deep, so workers sunk more than 6,500 wooden piles into the bay (the first use of a steam pile driver in the United States' history), and filled the spaces around the piles with concrete. In 1847 after the wooden piles were completed, the stonecutter Thorton MacNess Niven oversaw the installation of the dry dock's masonry superstructure.

McAlpine was fired for unknown reasons in 1849, and Charles B. Stuart took over for the rest of the project. Dry Dock 1 serviced its first ship, Dale, in 1850. The dry dock was completed the following year. Because of its design, Dry Dock 1 never required any extensive maintenance, though part of the masonry at the front of the dry dock was refurbished in 1887–1888. Dry Dock 1 was labeled a NYC Landmark in 1975.

Timber shed

The Brooklyn Navy Yard's timber shed (Building 16), constructed between 1833 and 1853, is one of the Brooklyn Navy Yard's oldest buildings, behind the 1806 commandant's house and the 1838 Naval Hospital building. It is a brick building with a gable roof located on the west side of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, adjoining Navy Street. The timber shed had a twin, Building 15, which was located directly to the north and is now demolished. Building 16 originally measured 60 by 300 feet (18 by 91 m) while Building 15 measured 60 by 400 feet (18 by 122 m). Both buildings were used to store wood for shipbuilding after it had been cured in the nearby mill pond. Documents from 1837 suggest that the United States Navy allocated almost $90,000 (equivalent to $2,328,000 in 2022) on the construction of up to four brick timber sheds at Brooklyn Navy Yard.

After the Civil War, the timber sheds were used for timber storage, though the number of wooden ships built at the Navy Yard steadily decreased. During the late 19th century, Admiral's Row, a grouping of residences that formerly housed Navy Yard officers, was built around the timber sheds. As part of a Works Progress Administration renovation, part of Building 15 was demolished in 1937. In the 1940s, Building 16 was used as a police station as well as a lumber storage building, and in the 1950s and 1960s, it was also used as a garage. A 1963 renovation to Building 16 demolished part of the building, and the remainder was converted into a private ice rink for police officers. The rest of Building 15 was demolished probably after 1979, and Building 16 was abandoned around this time.

By 2010, Building 16 had been proposed for redevelopment, although it had badly deteriorated. In early 2011, engineers for the National Guard Bureau recommended demolishing the structure, since refurbishing it would cost $40 million. The refurbishment of the timber shed was underway by 2018. Douglas C. Steiner, who was redeveloping the Admiral's Row site, stated in January 2018 that Building 16 would likely be developed for food-related uses, such as for a restaurant.

Sands Street gate

Sands Street gate

The gate at Sands Street, on the Brooklyn Navy Yard's western border, was the main entrance to the yard in the early 20th century. It consists of a one-story medieval-style gatehouse shaped like a castle, with plinths, turrets, and posts with eagles on the tops. This entrance is located at the intersection of Sands Street and Navy Street, close to Admiral's Row, and was surrounded by the two timber sheds there. A wooden footbridge above the gate, built after World War II, formerly connected the two sheds. The gatehouse has undergone modifications throughout the years, including the addition of second and third floors (since removed), and the removal of the turrets. At one point, the Sands Street gate featured a failed hand-cranked submarine design called the Intelligent Whale, as well as Trophy Park, which contained a memorial shaft to twelve American sailors killed during the Battle of Canton in 1856.

The Sands Street gate replaced another gate on nearby York Street, and it cost $20,000 or $24,000 to build. As originally proposed in 1893, the gatehouse was supposed to be a 4-story structure containing a peaked roof, crenelations, and an ornate facade. However, the gatehouse was downsized to its current design because the other proposal was too expensive. Fearing a loss of business, saloon keepers on York Street protested against the Sands Street gate's construction, to no avail.

The gate started construction in 1895, and it opened a year later. The new Sands Street gate was not only closer to the trolley lines on Flushing Avenue, but also avoided a dirty and "malodorous" vicinity around the York Street gate. A year after the gate's opening, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle noted that the vicinity of the Sands Street gate was "much appreciated by the young women of Brooklyn who are enthusiastic Navy Yard visitors." Saloons soon opened up around this gate, and by 1924, sailors were banned from using the entrance. Starting with the Spanish–American War and continuing through both major world wars, potential Navy applicants lined up outside the Sands Street gate to enlist in the Navy. Sometime after the Navy Yard was decommissioned, the Sands Street gate became the entrance to the NYPD's Brooklyn tow pound, and by 2004, there were plans to refurbish the gate. The gatehouse was restored to its original condition in 2012, and it has housed the Kings County Distillery's tasting room since 2015.

Supply storehouse

The supply storehouse, located immediately east of Building 92, looking eastward

Close-up of the facade of the supply storehouse

Building 77, located immediately east of the supply storehouse, looking eastward

The Brooklyn Navy Yard's eleven-story supply storehouse (Building 3), located east of Building 92, was the first reinforced-concrete building constructed at the yard. Built by Turner Construction in the Neo-Classical style, it contains a one-story base and one-story attic with nine stories in between. A loading platform, covered by a flat metal canopy, encircles the building's base, and contains loading dock entries at various points. There were also formerly rail sidings on the west and north sides of the building. The nine stories above the base contain columns of wide rectangular windows, organized into "bays". Each bay is separated by concrete piers, and each window contains a concrete still below it. There are cornices at the top of the tenth and eleventh floors. On the eleventh floor, each bay contains triple-windows, and there are stair and elevator bulkhead structures, as well as skylights. The structure contained 712,000 square feet (66,100 m²) of floor space when first built.

The federal government had commissioned Turner Construction by chance, when government officials raided Turner's factory based on a report of German guns being manufactured, and found Turner manufacturing engine foundations instead. A contract for Building 3's construction was made in April 1917. Work began four days after the contract was signed. The modification to 11 stories was made partway through the construction progress. Construction progressed at a pace of one story per week, aided by the proximity of the Navy Yard's railroad system, via which materials could be delivered. The structure was finished by September at a cost of $1.2 million, and the Navy moved into the structure on October 1, 1917. The attic contained the commandant's, yard captain's, and manager's offices. Building 3 was outfitted with radio and radar laboratories during World War II, and footbridges were constructed to Buildings 5 and 77, although both footbridges have since been demolished. The roof of Building 3 now contains a rooftop farm run by Brooklyn Grange, and the rest of the building is occupied by various industrial and commercial tenants.

Building 77

Building 77 is a sixteen-story structure constructed during World War II based on a design by George T. Basset. The structure contains 952,000 square feet (88,400 m²) of floor space. The foundation of the building is supported by caissons of concrete and steel, which descend 150 feet (46 m) underground. The lowest eleven stories were constructed with 25-inch-thick (64 cm) walls and no windows, encompassing 21 acres (85,000 m²) of storage space. These floors were likely used to store ammunition. Windows were installed on these floors in a 2017 renovation of the building.

In mid-1940, Turner Construction was hired to erect the building under a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, which would expedite construction. The foundation of the building was constructed in June 1941, and construction progressed quickly, with one story completed roughly every three working days. The structure was completed by September 1941 at a cost of $4 million. The structure originally contained the yard headquarters as well as other spaces such as offices, storage spaces, laboratories, and a library. Building 77 was renovated in 2017 by Beyer Blinder Belle and now houses light manufacturing as well as commercial tenants.

Other notable structures

• The commandant's house, Quarters A (built 1807), is a federal style structure in Vinegar Hill that is a part of Admiral's Row. Charles Bulfinch, who also designed the United States Capitol's rotunda, is often named as the architect of this house, though there is no evidence that Bulfinch was actually involved in the design.
• Building 1 (former Building 291, built c. 1941–1942) was a materials testing laboratory, used for testing electronic output during World War II. The roof contains radio towers erected during World War II, which still exist. It was used by the Navy even after the yard's decommissioning and was abandoned in 1994. It is now used by Steiner Studios.
• Building 41 (built 1942), located on Morris Avenue between Fourth and Fifth Street, was originally a power plant, replacing another on the same site. It was converted into a cogeneration plant in 1995, using one of the world's largest cranes.
• Building 128 (built c. 1899–1900) is located at Morris Avenue and Sixth Street, near the Cumberland Street entrance. The building is a one-story L-shaped structure made of steel, masonry, and glass, and a high gable-monitor roof. It was formerly a machine and erecting shop, with the long arm of the L pointing northeast to accommodate a long movable crane. Building 128 houses the Green Manufacturing Center, along with a technology hub called Newlab.
• Building 132 (built 1905), located at Warrington Avenue and Fourth Street, was formerly a steam engine repair shop, and now contains light manufacturing.
• Building 280 (built 1942) is located at Morris Avenue and Sixth Street, near the Cumberland Street entrance. It is an eight-story rectangular structure that was formerly used as an ordnance machine shop.
• Building 293 (built c. 1970s) is located northeast of Dry Dock 6, on the northeast side of the yard. It is an 1,000-by-100-foot (305 by 30 m) gable-roofed structure that served as a supply and distribution center. Building 293 was supposed to be a paint fabrication facility for Seatrain Shipbuilding, but the permits were never granted. The building was then converted into a modular apartment manufacturing facility for Forest City Ratner (and later for FullStack Modular), which produced apartments for the nearby Pacific Park development. In 2016, Building 293 was outfitted with one of New York City's largest solar roof installations, a 3,152-panel structure that could generate 1.1 million kilowatt-hours (4,000,000 MJ) of energy.

Former structures

Admiral's Row featured ten homes in various architectural styles (namely the Greek Revival, Italianate, and French Empire styles). Built between 1864 and 1901, they served as residences to high-ranking Navy Yard officers. The property also contained a timber shed, parade ground, tennis courts, and garages attached to each house. The row was abandoned when the Navy Yard was decommissioned in 1966, and most of the houses were demolished in 2016.

The Brooklyn Navy Yard also contained an artificial island called the Cob Dock. It was originally a mud flat in Wallabout Bay and was reportedly expanded with ballast released by departing ships. Cob Dock became a convenient place for ships to moor, and was once also used by the first flocks of messenger pigeons used by the Navy. Cob Dock was separated from the mainland Navy Yard by Wallabout Channel, a 5-to-20-foot-deep (1.5 to 6.1 m) channel around the southern half of the island that connected to Wallabout Bay on the west and east ends. A structural cribwork was built around the island during the Civil War, and a ship basin was built in the center of the island, while Wallabout Channel was dredged to a lower depth to allow capacity for more boats to moor. After the Civil War, the north end of the island was used to store ordnance, while the south end became a park and training ground. A ferry initially provided service between Cob Dock and the rest of the Navy Yard, but by 1900, it was replaced by a causeway across Wallabout Channel. The southern section of Cob Dock was demolished in the early 1910s to make room for larger ships. The remainder of the island was demolished during World War II to make room for Dry Docks 5 and 6, which were built in 1942.

The Wallabout Market, a city-operated food market formerly located at the eastern end of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was developed in the late 19th century. The United States Navy Department started leasing 25 acres (10 ha) of waterfront land to the city of Brooklyn in 1877 so that the city could start operating a market, and the Navy received a permit to start operating the market in 1884. The Brooklyn city government gained ownership of Wallabout Market in 1890, and the market later came under the operation of New York City. The market was very close to New York Harbor, so it was easy to import and export goods, but the ground was muddy and the area was frequented by a violent gang that evaded police enforcement. Roads, frame buildings, and a sewage system were installed at Wallabout Market. By the late 1890s, the market contained piers, as well as floating landings for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad. The Wallabout Market site was re-acquired by the Navy and demolished during World War II to make room for Dry Docks 5 and 6.

Landmark designations

Commander's quarters

In 2014, the entire yard was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as a historic district. Certain buildings have also been given landmark status. Quarters A, the commander's quarters building, is a National Historic Landmark. Dry Dock 1, the Navy Yard Hospital Building (R95), and the Surgeon's Residence (R1) inside the Brooklyn Naval Hospital are all New York City designated landmarks.

A report commissioned by the National Guard in 2008 suggested that the entirety of the Admiral's Row property met the eligibility criteria for inclusion on the NRHP. However, in 2010, Admiral's Row sparked a landmarks debate because it had deteriorated to the point of collapse. Ultimately, the city approved a plan to redevelop Admiral's Row. In 2016, nine of the ten historic houses on Admiral's Row were torn down to accommodate 399 Sands Street, the Wegmans supermarket, and the parking lot.

A bronze marker on the Brooklyn Bridge contains a section commemorating the history of the shipyard. The plaque mentions several of the notable ships that were built at Brooklyn Navy Yard, including the Maine; the Missouri; and the last ship constructed there, Duluth.

Commandants

In popular culture

• The New York Naval Shipyard is featured in the 2008 video game Tom Clancy's EndWar, as a playable battlefield. In the game, the NYNS is constructing a new aircraft carrier called the USS Reagan.
• The shipyard is featured in 2000 video game Deus Ex, as a playable level in which the protagonist must scuttle a freighter docked at the base.
• The NYNS is parodied in the 2008 video game, Grand Theft Auto IV, where the game's version of the shipyards is known as the Broker Navy Yard.
• A Harry Houdini-themed task was performed at the NYNS in the final leg of The Amazing Race 21.
• Portions of the 1986 movie Robot Holocaust were filmed at the NYNS.

See also

In Spanish: Astillero Naval de Brooklyn para niños