This is a very extensive yard. The yard itself has seen a lot of different historical event. Events. The yard itself has changed dramatically over the many years. It was first founded in 1798 and it was around that time that the United States realized that we needed a Standing Military force. It was after the American Revolution that all the military was disbanded because of the sentiments from before the American Revolution. Who had a Standing Army stationed in the United States . The british. American merchant ships were being attacked in the mediterranean. We needed a Standing Military. More importantly we knew they navy to protect American Interest all over the globe. Thatongress basically said we yes, we need a navy. They passed a resolution founding the United States navy and commissions different naval yards to build a numerous amount igates for ther navu the navy. We realize is that not only did we need ships of being built but we needed navy yards to build those ships so Congress Needed a navy yard that was close to them so they could keep an eye on what the navy was doing. Where a better place to do that than right along the Anacostia River, right down the street from the u. S. Capitol so they could keep an eye on what was going on here. That suspicion of the military for the federal government at that time, thats why this area was chosen. The very first commandant of the navy yard retasked was tasked with building the yard was a man by the name of thomas stingy. He has a very long history with this navy yard. He builds it, destroys it, then builds it again. We are getting a little bit ahead of ourselves with that story. But again, this is really part of the original portion of the navy yard. The very first portion of the navy yard. We are going to head out to our second stop, which is just up the hill over there. Theres a small looking shack that is a nice looking shack when you get up close to it, but it has a long history behind it. So, feel free to get under the porch. Take a second and check it out. Its pretty unassuming right, . Just a single room, nothing too fancy. So the captain is the first commandant of the Washington Navy yard. Hes in charge of holding the facilities here. There are a few buildings that are on the property that are actually still around today, but when hes tasked with building is not only the shipbuilding facilities, which down the hill in that direction over there, you see how the hill slopes down. I was the first boat ramp area that they would build ships on and then launch them out. But they also have massive wood lots he was in charge of surrounding the navy yard, so cutting down all the lumber. He was also in charge of holding all the housing two for yard workers, and the officers who would stay here in the yard itself. And also in charge of building the gates thats behind us. That is latrobe gate, built i the famed architect benjamin latrobe. Does his name sounds familiar at all . Have been to the u. S. Capitol . He designed the capital. There is that familiarity. It was actually Thomas Jefferson who worked with him to get latrobe down here to design not only the gate thats there, but also the house thats right next to it, that is the house of the commandant of the navy yard. They designed the facilities that are up there. 1798, the yard starts picking up, theres more and more activity happening here. Just a few years later, lets say 1814, whats happening in the u. S. Around that time . The war of 1812 is happening. Is when the british 1814 started reading this area. Tingey is still commandant of the yard and there is a commodore by the name of Joshua Barney was put in charge of the defenses of washington, d. See washington dc. Theres actually militia that maryland and virginia militia that are brought to washington to help protect the capital. But you also have yard workers, sailors, and marines who are basically drafted into the effort to help defend washington. By the way, latrobe gate, just out of the gate and of the street, guess whats up there . The barracks. What barracks . The marine barracks. The whole reason why the marines are there is because of the Washington Navy yard. This gate is the oldest u. S. Ned marine guard post in the world. Thats the reason why the marines are at the barracks because of that guard post right there. We will get back to that in just a second. Back to the war of 1812, the british are making their way onto the city. The militia is sent out first to a place called bladensburg. Its at bladensburg that the militia are routed by the british, they are sent packing, and the sailors and marines are sent over the navy yard ridge, todays 11 street ridge. They are sent from the height on the other side and are there to defend the bridge. They were never told a militia turned and fled. They are there by themselves when the entire British Force comes up rated goes back and forth, Commodore Barney is wounded, the use of basically all the ammunition they have and they turn in because theres nothing else to them to do. Barney is captured and surrenders to the british. If you want to check that out later, you can. Because there is no defenses left, they start making their way onto the city. The navy yard here. Tingey is in charge and hes been told by secretary of the navy, when the british start making their way onto the city, we know its going to happen but if they start making their way into the city, burn the navy yard. We dont let into we dont want it to fall into the hands of the british area british. We dont want them using of those supplies. So he does. But before he does that, he evacuates. When john adams really put forth the effort to form the United States navy, he founded the United States navy library. Its basically books and tactical manuals from all around the world. He wanted the officers to read these books and learn from the best around the world. Tingey evacuated the navy yard library. United dates navys library from the United States navys library from the navy yard, and heres a question for you. Im going to be asking a lot of questions during this tour, so be prepared. This library is older, the whose library is older, the library of congress, or the library of the navy . The navy library, because they did not evacuate the library of congress when it was burned by the british. Dates navys library from the navy yard, and heres a question for you. Im going to be asking a lot of questions during this tour, so be prepared. This library is older, the library of congress, or the library of the navy . The navy library, because they did not evacuate the library of congress when it was burned by the british. We have that over the library of congress. The boat ramp that is there, he makes his way down the boat ramp. Theres a rowboat with other yard workers waiting for him after they put the torch through the yard and make their way down the anacostia to alexandria. Thats where they hide out for a few days until the british leave the city. He didnt torch all of the buildings, though, including the other houses that you see across the way over there. Those houses were untouched. There was really no wall surrounding the navy yard, and all the locals all that the navy had basically left this area. They went into all the houses and took everything that wasnt nailed down. When tingey came back, he came back to a gutted navy yard and he had to work on rebuilding the szilagyis that are here. As hes doing that, he puts in a proposal to congress saying, i want to build a wall around the navy yard and i wanted to be about 10 feet high. This building was actually brought to the indian had the szilagyi for a while, because they were lacking buildings, and they needed it it actually served as a telephone switchboard operator house served as a mailroom and served as a guard post. It was in use until 1930 x, when it was abandoned at indianhead, and it wasnt until the 1990s that somebody tracked it down. It wasnt until a few years ago that they picked it up and brought it back here and refurbished it into what you see today. As we start making our way back down the pathway, we are going to be crossing the street talking about whats over there. As we do, you will notice there are cannons that line the drive here. These are all cannons that were captured during different wars that we had, from the first barbary war all the way up until the civil war. One of the cannons was captured twice. I will show that to you as we get down the road here. Its actually the very last canon in this line. This little gun here, you can share it with your rants, later on if you take anybody else walking by this. This gun was captured during the first barbary war, and brought not to the navy yard, but down to the northwood naval yard, and put on display there. During the civil war, it falls to the confederates. They find this canon and say, we canon, and place it on to one of their gunboats with that gunboat was captured by a union navy ship and was brought here to the navy yard. This is the canon that was captured twice and is now here on this way of the Washington Navy yard. Thomas it is inscribed, and also basically just tracking it, as you can see on the top here it has a trophy marking. Whenever they would capture, they would market with a trophy number. Theres a little bit of navy yard history will every day and dont realize. We are going to cross the street, so we will go behind this pickup here and stick to the sidewalk. So the part that you see behind this anchor here, is named for a rear admiral who is the commandant of the yard 1905 to 1910, and was the son of one who painted the famous crossing of the delaware. Everybody has seen the painting, where its Washington Crossing the delaware with all the ice flow and everything. This park is basically what we call the quarter deck of the navy. It is the ceremonial Parade Ground for the navy yard and all of the navy. He a lot of ceremonies that happen here. Sometimes he lives in them and everything. Theres a lot of his horrible pieces that surround this park but we will mostly talk about this one right here. As you can he, the anchor from the u. S. Is enterprise, which is one of three Aircraft Carriers that actually was built before world war ii and survive the entire war. She was the most decorated Aircraft Carrier the most decorated naval ship from world or to. Saw a great length of service. The answer is here. Bill and believe is at the Naval Academy that they ring during Navy Football games if you ever have a chance to pop in, you can check it out. It was at one point in the south civic was the only Aircraft Carrier left in the pacific, because we lost the lexington, the hornet, the wasp, and the yorktown, and she was it great for those of you know your world war ii history, the effect was really a carrier war. The people have the most Aircraft Carriers, they would be the victors. At one point after losing the hornet and wasp and she was the only one left, somebody on her light deck on a banner that said enterprise versus japan. That was what it was at that point in time. Theres a lot of history surrounding this anchor, even though its just a big hunk of metal, just think of what this piece witnessed here. Some other things that surround the park here, some of the other housing. First off you can see the latrobe gate but also the tingey house, the commandants house, its across the parade deck. A little funny anecdote about that, when tingey died, he for some reason left the house in his will to his children because he loved house so much and he thought he really earned the house, which im not sure if you can will Government Property to your children, but he tried to, and of course the federal government didnt really honor those wishes. Some other things that surround this area, the buildings that you see on either side of you, when ships came to the navy yard to get reoutfitted or repaired, the crews could not stay aboard the ship as they were being worked on. So they are placed in housing surrounding the field here. The enlisted state in this building located behind you, officers stayed in the surrounding buildings over here. And, another building that i like to point out to people, if you take a look of there, its kind of the oddly shaped building with the hard bay windows at the top. That is the optical building, before radar. They used rangefinders above ships to get the range of other ships when they were firing their big guns toward ships to calibrate those guns. They actually did the calibrations of their. The big bay windows would slide open. They used certain points around washington, d. C. To calibrate the rangefinders. There were certain points that really dont move. First off, they use the u. S. Capitol. Second was the washington monument, and third was the masonic temple in alexandria. Those were used as the fixed points, so you have those calibrated. Today i believe its a big Conference Room up there. That was built in the early 1900s, so 1903. Im sorry, 1918 through 1919 is when they were calibrating the rangefinders up there. But it was probably built 1915, 1916 before they started calibrating everything up there. Anyone else . All right. So, again, just a lot of history in this area. How many of you have been to the Marine Corps Museum . I see some hands raised. Originally the Marine Corps Museum was located in that building right there. They realized they needed a bigger facility, and they moved it to quantico. As that museum was being built, they shut down this one and moved everything down there. Got Everything Else out of storage. Today across the street, the naval history and heritage command is based out of that building right across the way. The navy museum falls under the naval history and heritage commission. If we dont have any more questions, we will head to our next stop, which is a little bit of a hike but i promise you there some good stuff there. All right. Lets head on up. Were going to go through this holding here and just out the other side to the william iii. Today is the coffee shop but it has a different history and just coffee than just coffee. Lets head on through. So, in 1822, and john rogers designs and builds the first marine build railway. A lot of people get very different ideas when they think of Marine Railway. Its basically a winch with tracks with a palette, where the ship comes up and on top of the palette, i get sucked into the palette and gets hooked into the palette and is pulled up and out of the water so they can work on the hull, and winches back down into the water. This railway was actually built the first one here, 1822. When you see today here was built in the 1880s, 1890s. William the third, as you can see, and espresso bar or coffee shop, it really was the witch house for the Marine Railway. As you can see, out over there, you can see the tracks for it and everything too, the chef would be winched up and out of the water for. They were able to save the machinery there for the nice last window so everybody could put it out. You see remnants of the history of the navy yard like this throughout the yard itself. You see other items like this is a go through the rest of the tour. Its almost like a ghost of the past that is sitting there. For those of you who walk i this every day, now you know what it is exactly. He will take a look at some models that are there and show you what the navy yard look like in the very beginning and what it looked like at its heyday its heyday. So i always love you people in here because this really shows you what the navy yard look like in the very beginning. You look at this model here, this is what it looked like after the british had to burn the yard, and this is what it looked like as they started to rebuild it. As you can see by the outline you see with the white dashes, that is what the navy yard is kind of like today, or when it was like in its heyday, but you can see latrobe gate, tingey house, the farmhouse, the optical tower would be in this area here, the winch house area or Marine Railway where they first started working ships up and out of the water, and this is what it was like when they were starting to really get into the true shipbuilding facilities. Lets take a look at this model over here. This is what it looked like in the 1960s. And, as you can see, a lot of changes really havent. They filled in a lot of the land. You can still see a lot of the remnants. You have latrobe gate right there, the tingey house. Theres that optical tower i was talking about. Where are we at today . In this building. We passed through it, you can see the wench house is in this area here. This is when the navy yard was actually not known as navy yard. During the 1890s, the navy yards mission changes, which seems to happen throughout its history. It always changes. Before the 1890s, there were foundries as the country making naval guns. But their their procedure to look at how good the guns were, basically spot checking the guns to make sure they were made correctly, they had so many variations from all the different down trees. The navy was getting fed up. We should make our own guns. Its in the 1890s to about 1960 or the Washington Navy yard becomes known as a naval gun factory. This is where all the battleship guns are made, from 12 to 14 to 16 inch guns, 5 inch guns, 40 millimeter antiaircraft guns, all the guns for the navy that are mounted aboard a ship are made here. And, so that way they can really keep an i on quality control, whats coming out of the factories. Here at the gun factory, great factories and shops. A forge, warehouses and foundries. Overhead runways. Roads. And rail lines. As well as development and testing laboratories. The naval gun factory is a prototype laboratory for new and improved or the navy of tomorrow. As a prototype laboratory, the first working models of new guns are built for test. Theres a factory for new and improved weapons. The gun factory is not only ms user of hundred weapons, but weapons that aches require extreme technical skill and knowhow in many different engineering yields. Thomas its in the 1960s we realize we dont need battleship units anymore because the mission is changing, so we start losing some of these buildings, giving them back to the cities. We are more of a legit sticks now. Thats when our mission changed. It becomes known as the Washington Navy yard again. Well talk about the model basin which is today known as the old work gallery, and the history behind that place to. We are going to head out the doors right over there, and stop outside of the canada. The building you see behind you here, the taylor building, it was during the 1890s that a lot of missions were changing within the navy. How many of you have heard of the uss maine . Do any of you know who designed the maine . It was a british design. We bought the rights to the design of that ship. Well, it was during that time that we started realizing it didnt make sense to buy rights for designs from other countries could we did pretty well at designing our own ships before, so why not continue doing that . Facilities were built here in the navy yard to help again with ship and hull design. This was one of those First Holdings buildings. I have a small photo to show you what it looked like on the inside. Was a very long basin, a tub, with tracks on either side, and arm the goes across it, and they would design ship hulls on small models, look them up to the bar that goes across, and dragged him through the basin. Drag them through the basin. It worked. It worked really well for a good amount of time, but lets take a look at my navy yard history map here. This is the taylor model basin. As you can see in this area here, what is it built on top of . This is the original shoreline. Reclaimed land. So they filled in the Anacostia River. That fill over time, the train tracks on either side of basin were so heavy, and the water was so heavy in that recent that whenever they would drag the ship model through, the tracks would shift to cousin of the weight because it was not on solid red rock. Bedrock. Throwing off all their calculations are they realize they needed a new facility. Later the abandoned this building and moved to a new facility in carter rock, maryland. This is where they are still at today. The taylor model basin, situated 12 miles northwest of washington, is the largest and most complete model basin in the world. Thomas this is the father of that facility right here. Today, its our cold war gallery, but also the offices of the underwater archaeology ranch of the naval history and heritage command, which those of you who dont know, the navy is in charge of their downed aircraft around the world and they are the ones who go on survey those sites and dive on them and if people bring up artifacts illegally, dont get go and get them, with other groups too. This is their headquarters building, right there. There is that vestiges of the past, the past is all around us reminding us of where the navy came and where we are at today. From and where we are at today. Lets check out one of the oldest things here in the navy yard and we will cross the street and look at this White Building right here. [inaudible] thomas this is building number one, it is the Commandants Office for the navy yard, builtin 1838. This building is seen a lot of history. Its building number one because it was one of the first buildings built here at the navy yard. You look at the model thats in there of the navy yard when tingey was basically still commandant. You can see how on that model and everything. If you notice, if you start looking at the building numbers around the yard, a dont really match up. They are haphazardly numbered over the place. They are numbered in the timeline they were built. That commandants name, we will talk about him in a bit. Abraham lincoln would come and visit him at his offices quarters. They would sit on the back porch and smoke cigars and drink and do other things we will talk about, mostly what they called champagne experiments. Why dont we head to the back of this building, and talk about those champagne experiments . Theres a story that goes with all these guns that im about to tell you. This gun right here is what they call it peacemaker. Not the revolver. This one was actually developed by Commodore Robert stockton, u. S. Navy, and a swedish engineer by the name of john erickson. The name may sound familiar for those of you who know your civil war history. This gun was actually made in the 18th wartys 1840s. It was supposed to be a revolutionary gun, and it was supposed to go on a special ship, which had more revolutionary designs on it, and a special type of screw propeller, a special type of engine, and it had this new special gun. It was made here at the navy yard, and the two Work Together to build the ship and the gun and get it ready for service. And to showcase what was being done with this gun and the ship. Harrison and stockton invited onto fairbury 28, 1844, president john tyler and 500 government officials and dignitaries to go on to the princeton and basically take some cruises up and down the potomac and anacostia, firing this canon off. There were two that were made. There was the original peacemaker, and this one. Theres a reason why this one is still in a distance and the original is not. After a couple firings, including by the president who fired the cannon and everything, the president actually went below deck with his female companion dont worry, he was single at the time so it was all in the up and up, the firings continued, and one of those firings, the cannon exploded, killing several people, including the secretary of state, the secretary of the navy, and 4 others, including ms. Gardners father. It is not a good day for the president. He was luckily below deck. Stockton was cleared of all wrongdoing, and all the blame went on to his partner, erickson, who got it up with the navy and said, i will never work with them again, i went up to new york. And went up to new york. This gun was never fired again, the other one was trashed to who knows where. There was also somebody here at the navy yard who was aboard the ship and it was the commandant of the navy yard who was observing everything. His name was franklin buchanan. It was the commandant of the navy yard up until the civil war. Again, theres a tie between all of these guns. Lets Flash Forward to the civil war. Franklin buchanan, a marylander, when states start seceding from the union, he believes that maryland is going to secede from the union. So, he turns in his commission, gets out of the navy, and says im going with maryland when they secede. President at the time, abraham lincoln, says maryland is not going to secede from the union. To keep that from happening, he incarcerates all the politicians, turns off the guns at fort mchenry into the city, and his fortifications built on rural hill in baltimore with the guns pointed on the city. Maryland does not secede from the union. Buchanan realizes that theyre not going to succeed from the union and goes back to the secretary of the navy and says, i was just kidding. I would like my commission back. The secretary of the navy says, no. You want to go south, go south. He does that, and he joins the confederate navy. That opens up the position here for the commandant of the yard, for dahlgren, john dahlgren. Is what we call the godfather of naval ordinance. You make some of the best cannons in the navy at that time , and does a lot of experiments we will talk about in a few minutes. But he can go south. Its when hes in the south, hes down the norfolk and finds there is this new ship being built. The virginia is what we call one of the first ironclads. It was originally designed to ram other ships to sink them. It was a very armored ship. It was made from the wreckage of the uss merrimack, which was in norfolk to get our engine repaired. The yard workers torched her. The confederates raised her up with their engine. What they didnt realize is the engine needed to be repaired. She can only do 2 or 3 knots. She was a very slow and lumbering ship. Five for the union here that this ship is being built. The realize they need an armored ship, and they need someone to design its, and they hear this eccentric guy in new york city is designing this ship called the monitor, in his name, the designer who gets who swears he will never work with the navy again, erickson. Erickson is designing a ship called the monitor. It takes several people, including the president , to convince him to work with the navy again. They get it else in time built in town. A virginia set sail. The first day it goes down, sinks 2 union ships and grounds another one before the tide falls low enough that they have to go back upriver to norfolk. The next day they come back down when the tide is high enough, and they want to go and finish off that other union ship. The monitor is a small, ironclad ship with a revolving turret. Its very maneuverable, and those guns could fire wherever they needed to go. You didnt have to turn the entire ship to fire those cannons. That day, the fight ends in a draw. The very first battle of the ironclad. When that battle ends, other countries around the world hear about this battle and stop production of all their wooden ships because they realize that they have been really left hide by the United States and the shipbuilding capabilities their shipbuilding capabilities. There is your tie in to the monitor and buchanan. Buchanan is actually the skipper or the captain of the virginia for the first day of battle. Hes wounded in the leg by a union sharpshooter from the short he went on deck and started shooting at people on shore. They shot back and hit him in the leg. He wasnt in command of the virginia during the second they of the battle. What happens to the virginia . She goes back up the river. Union forces make their way up the finance one and are about to take the narco when the confederates blow her up. Buchanan is out of a job. What happens to the monitor . She is brought back to the navy yard. They are starting to tell her down south to i believe South Carolina when she gets caught in the storm, capsizes in sinks. And sinks. Her wreck was later recovered and parts of her are on this play in norfolk. If you ask us later on, we might bring it out for you. Buchanan is out of a job. He goes down south again and theres another iron led the inbuilt ironclad being built and its called tennessee. These guns are from the tennessee. The tennessee takes part in the battle of mobile bay, going up against the admiral by the name of sarah get. You will hear just a little bit about him. He was important during the civil war. When the tennessee was eventually captured there is your tie in, between the keys maker, the guns of the tennis, the commandant of the yard by the name of buchanan, and an eccentric swedish engineer by the name of erickson. Theres your very long story that ties all of this together. Any questions so far . [inaudible] thomas the champagne experiments. Thank you for bringing that up here the champagne experiments, it was admiral dog run, the commandant of the yard here. He would experiment with canon. You will see some of the test and it little bit of what he was shooting at you if his guns would rate through breakthrough some of the steel from ironclad. President lincoln was an ordinance nut. 11 cannons and he loved firearms. He loved cannons that he loved firearms. It was a newly designed rifle that basically he was shooting at a log pile to see how this gun would work, so he was an ordinance nut, so we knew the dahlgren was experimenting with canon, so they would come down here, smoke cigars, drink champagne, and tire cannons into the anacostia fire cannons into the anacostia. Dahlgren was also asked limiting experimenting with rockets and one of those experiments, they were firing the rockets and lincoln wanted to set off one of the rockets. Dahlgren said, here you go and heres how you do it. Lincoln goes up with the secretary of state, seward. They are standing right by it, they set it up and it explodes on the path. In dahlgrens own words, i thought i killed the president because he disappeared into a cloud of smoke and fire. Along with the secretary of state. A few seconds later, who should come out of the smoke coughing and laughing, lincoln and seward. Lincoln said something to the extent of, well, i guess i didnt work, lets load up another. It was something that happened right in this area here. All this history happens here in the Washington Navy yard. It is on lincolns last day of life that he comes to the navy yard and visits dahlgren in the offices, but he also visits a ship thats actually at our next step we will talk about. Theres your answer for the champagne experiments. We are going to cross the street, and if you will follow me when was the first design that could penetrate and ironclad whole an ironclad hull . Thomas during the civil war. We have some of those test plates you will see today. So, this area here, we not only talk about the building i work at, but also what happens in this area viewers tending in you are standing in. Its the National Museum of the united dates navy. And, when it was the naval gun factory, it was the breech mechanism factory for the yard. The breech mechanism was recently for breech loading cannons, so back in the canon. You load your cannon in with the powder and you closely breach and lock it down. Its the gun youre able to close. The gun barrels would be brought in through the front door, a breech mechanism would be attached to the back and they would exit out the back. Theres also a small forge in there. A lot of stuff happened in that building their. The next time you go inside, take a look at the cranes that are still up over your heads when you go through the exhibit. What happens in this area here . During the time of the civil war, this area where ewers adding was actually part of the Anacostia River you are standing was actually part of the Anacostia River. Again, a monitor style ironclad. The montauk, one of the sailors aboard her was the son of a friend of lincoln that lincoln wanted to visit. He came to see one of the sailors and tour the montauk. He invited those sailors to visit him at fords theater that evening. Some of those sailors did go to fords theatre and witness the assassination of abraham lincoln. The montauk is also famous for other reasons too. After the assassination, and during the time they are rounding up all the lincoln conspirators, the people who took part in conspiracy to assassinate lincoln, and spirit jurors are brought here to the navy yard and are imprisoned aboard uss montauk. And in fact, the photos that were taken of the can reuters. Conspirators. If you look, theres all that iron in the background, thats the carrots of uss turret of the uss montauk. The only one whos not imprisoned here was mary surratt. She ran the boarding house where all the conspirators met. Montauk is also famous for when john wilkes booth, the assassins, was killed, his body was brought back here to the navy yard. It was autopsied on the montauk, which is one of the reasons why we believe the navy has one of booths spurs. Its in the navy collection, and thats probably why. His body was brought back here to the navy yard. Theres also have your history that happens here. Its out in the docs in that area of the dogs that are not there anymore, that Charles Lindbergh after he makes his trip across the atlantic or hes brought act by a u. S. Navy ship, who deposits him here at the navy yard right in that area there, where the parking lot is today just on the other side of the fence. If youre ever walking along the river, thats where Charles Lindbergh comes back. Theres a little bit of a solemn history too. The very first body for the tomb of the unknown soldier, from world war i, is brought back here to the navy yard aboard the uss olympia. She was a shift from the spanishamerican war. Ship from the spanishamerican war. She is still in service during world war i and she brings back the remains of the first soldier from the tomb of the unknown. They are brought here to the navy yard, brought out to latrobe gate, and then on to Arlington National cemetery. Again, the monitor also comes back here. And, also, most people dont know this. The navy yard was kind of the ceremonial gateways to the world for diplomats coming into the nations capital. It is in the 1860s of the first elements from japan, the first ambassadors from jim and are actually brought here japan are brought here to the navy yard. And then, onto their embassy they just established. Their photo was actually taken here in the navy yard, which they have a photo of here, and the yards commandant at that time is standing in the photo, and his name is franklin buchanan. This is just before the civil war touches off. Its a very famous photo of them. A lot of history happens here in this area. Also, the u. S. Navys dive school was first in the Anacostia River. It was probably a miserable place to train for diving. The navys for submarine, the uss holland, was tested for the first time out in the and across your river Anacostia River. Lots of history happens in this one area. We also have lots of historic items on display, just on the other side in willard park which is our next stop. Is everyone ready to go see it . All right. Lets go to go look. Its a titanium pressure sphere for the vehicle alan alvin. It is still in use in the navy today. The navy may sound familiar because its the commercial that dr. Robert ballard took of the titanic in 1986. Really does a lot of work for the navy. When the pressure spheres are used over a certain amount of time, you dont want to use them too much because each dive you do puts wear and tear on it. These are replaced over time, and so this one was used a lot by the navy and then it was retired and were laced replaced. It was brought here. Thats why its on display. That titanium really protects them at great depth. What you see behind you is these fair propeller blade from uss maine, which was signed on february 15, 1898, during the time they believed it was a spanish mine that sank her. Thats actually not the case. He was told by the secretary of the navy, the commander of the maine was told he sent the savannah harbor to help protect American Interests in cuba at that time. The captain of the maine was told to be fully stocked with coal and ready to go at a moments notice in case of any shots that are iron fired. They were loaded with a special coal that was known to burn very quickly and very hot, so the could get steam up very quickly for their engines. That coal was also known to self combust. Now, ship designs at that time too. They realize armor is very important, and you really need to protect your ships magazines, the ammunition lockers are they said, we need a next her offer buffer an extra buffer. We should put the coal bunkers around the ammunition. Filled with fuel that can self combust. Thats what happens. Boom. And, thats really actually what sinks the maine. It is not until studies that were done until the 1980s, 1990s that that actually comes out to be the main cause. At that time they thought it was a spanish mine, and that gets us into the spanishamerican war. On more interesting things around the yard here, we are actually going to walk over here. You will see some iron plates that are in this area, those are the test plates from dahlgren, from when he was testing his dahlgren gun. You can see that some of them have been punched through by his guns. If you look at shots like this here, most people say, that didnt do too much damage. Actually, for a confederate ironclad, yes they have iron on them, but whats underneath that holding the iron in place . A hit like that would cause the wood inside to explode and send shards and splinters throughout the gun decks and any open space in that area. Hits like that are very devastating, along with hits where they do penetrate and go through. Again, this is a piece of history that you can walk up and touch. This is what dahlgren was firing at in the Washington Navy hard. Yard. It was also during the civil war that some of the residents around the navy yard were complaining about dahlgren because he was firing these canons too much. The dahlgren facility across the river and down the river was created so he could get out of the basically president ial area of with his canons washington, d. C. With his cannons. A massive gun, and the tracks its on, the railroad car as you can see there, thats how they would transport these guns around the navy yard. So, the Railroad Tracks are again still underneath the pavement too. This is how they would bring the guns around the yard, until they were ready to be put on a ship. And you can see the diameter of the board here, just to see how wide the shell would be. If you want to see the height of a shell, we have some of the test rounds for the 16 inch gun. These were test rounds from the battleship new jersey. And again, they are test rounds because they dont have the tips on them and they are basically solid shot. They had all different types of shots that would sometimes ask when it explode when it would hit. It depended on the hiring mission they were firing mission they were assigned. Some other things we have here, lets take that big hug of steel hunk of steel you see over there. This armored plate here is actually from the shipyards, then fill the japanese super battleship yamato. At the end of the war, the navy went to the shipbuilding silly and found this deal and found some of the yard workers who said, this is the thickest armor placed aboard battleship yamato. Who here knows what sank yamato . Bombers. Basically navy torpedo planes an d bombers. And, the navy wanted to see if our large 16 inch guns could penetrate this armor. It did. As you can see. What they wont really tell you is that the muslin of the 16 inch gun was a few inches away from the arbor when the fired that route through it. Round through it. Looking at the numbers that were done, they said even at a distance it might have actually penetrated because of the type of propellants they were using. The type of gun that the yamato had, they had some of the largest battleship guns in the world at that time, the 18 inch gun. The 18 inch gun fired those 18 inch shells that are located around the corner, and that will be our next stop you can check out and see and stand next to those shells. Was a few inches away from the armor when the fire that round trip. Looking at it numbers that were done they might have actually penetrated, because of the ground propellant we were using. Someype of gun they had of the largest battleship guns in the world at that time, 18 inch guns. You can inch gun actually fire the tina charles located around the corner. That will be our next step they can check out and see, stands next to those shells. Corner overund the here. These are dictated shelf yamato. Ould aspire i think theyre a little bit bigger than you. Room a lossf upon others are here. Its a 14 inch gun. They had about five of these guns all throughout france. Had a massive train attached to it that had bunk houses for the cruise, cooking facilities, ammunition storage, construction material, also aircraft that would fly up and above the spot for the guns. There are photos where they are wearing their white and their navy blues. As long as your rank was on your sleeve you could wear whatever you wanted. I always joked with people at the museum that it acyclic like the mchales navy of world war i. They did whatever they wanted as long as they got the mission done, they were good to go. This was the last one in existence and its on display here at the navy yard. Right therescrew off the uss south dakota. Along with some of her thinnest and thickest armor right next to each other. Follow me. The submarine sale that you see over there is actually off another ship. The lead ship in that class of submarines from world war ii. Too young toseem know operation petticoat. Basically, its a funny movie, its a comedy. Its about submarine service in the philippines, theres a pink, whichat looks is part of a true story from world war ii in the philippines. During that movie, the vallejo was painted pink and is known as the pink submarine for the movie operation petticoat. When the vallejo was retired in 1960s, the sale was cut off, brought here for and the rest of her was actually sat as a target. Thats why that sale is here at the Washington Navy yard. For those of you who may have seen the advertisements, there was mention of a leg in the navy yard. The next stop, were going to be talking about. And check down here out a parking garage. We are going to stand here and you dont have to stand in the sun if you dont want to. Stick to the shade if you want. Going to talk about this parking garage. What was here before the parking garage, we are standing at the side of what was the dahlgren foundry. This building right here. Dahlgrenhere admiral was casting all his guns, a very hot place to work. Casts. Steel into those we are here to talk about his son, colonel dahlgren, who was serving in the union army at the time of the civil war. After the battle of gettysburg the union army is chasing robert e lee back down south. Time rmishes out outside the town of hagerstown, maryland. Its there that admiral dahlgren son loses his leg. Shot in the leg and due to the severity of the injury they have to amputate it. For some reason, the leg is brought here to the navy yard. It is encased in a lead case and placed in the wall of the foundry with a lack over it. Which reads, within this rall is deposited the leg of colonel dahlgren, u. S. Volunteers, wounded july 6, 1863, while skirmishing in the streets of hagerstown with the rebels after the battle of gettysburg. So it is in the wall. On and is killed later on in the civil war. He actually receives a prosthetic leg, joins the cavalry, he cannot be marching anymore so he is on horseback. He takes part in a raid on richmond and was killed on the rate outside of richmond near during ay courthouse raid to try to free union prisoners. Theres a scandal becomes out because on his body, the papers are found that basically detail a plan that dahlgrens main mission is to go into richmond and kill the confederate president along with his cabinet and along with any confederate generals including robert e lee that they happen to run into and it is a whole scandal that goes on both sides during the civil war. In the north, the papers were designed as a forgery to weaken the war effort and in said he is aey murderer and assassin and should never have been sent on a mission like that in the fight goes back and forth. Look like myesnt sons handwriting, so we may never know. Theres a story with hell the admiral gets his sons body. Elizabeth van loo is a spy for the union and is based in richmond. Somehow, is able to steal the body and using her network of spies get it through union lines back up north where he is able to be buried up here. The leg as a whole other ministry. After the civil war, the building is continued to be used and its in the 1870s or 1880s that the building is torn down. The plaque is removed and there is no mention of the leg after that. Another foundry goes up and someone says maybe you should put the plaque backup. 1820s, that building comes down and he knew building is put up in its place in the plaque is put act. Still mention of where the leg is at. Recently, the building comes down and a parking garage goes up. Somebody says we should put the plaque on it. So when we go around the corner you can look at the base of the wall there in the plaque is inset on the wall. Exactlyobody knows where the leg is at. It could still be somewhere in the navy yard, maybe a few feet under where were standing now or someone found it and tossed it. As we walked past it, were just going to go up the street a little bit. And we will head on our way. You see the photo of dahlgren, his leg was stolen by some confederates when his body was found and they actually cut off one of his fingers to take one of his rings. His body was just dragged around and was desecrated before the spy was able to steal his body back. So it in this area that we cannotabout the we get too close to it because the main gauges over there. You see that beams sticking out of the building over there. Its just right over there. The sail loft is the headquarters for the u. S. Navy band. Band fromhe 16 piece the battleship uss kansas was ordered here to the Washington Navy yard to augment a 17th piece band from the president ial yacht mayflower that was permanently docked here whenever the president wanted to go on sale excursions to wine and dine different politicians are dignitaries, they would take the mayflower out. They took the band off the battleship kansas and made it larger and they were permanently stationed here at the navy yard. They needed a place to practice. The place where the common told perfectpractice was a open space, the coal pile. The band members said that doesnt really suit us, so they started asking around the navy yard in trying to find a good, open late event to hold their practices. They ran into the workers from the sail loft. Unlike what his name really says, they never made sales up there. They worked with canvas up there ls. They never made sai they make canvas covers to provide shade. That is what they made up there. There is a massive open space of their in the band said, would you mind if we practice in this open space . You can enjoy the music. They said thats not a bad idea, why not . Come on up there. It is now their headquarters today. Concerts are held up there. Theres different functions that were held up there. Held upthe parties were in the sail loft, but today its alongmain practice area with Recording Studios and all sorts of other stuff that is the story behind the sail loft. We have just two more stops. One will take us inside a Building Work and see remnants of the navy yards past. Are you guys ready . We will head past the food trucks and into the building. This is building 22 where there is office space up top, shops down below, but i always tell this is a building that gives a great reminder of what the navy yard came from and where we are today. Weve repurposed a lot of what was really used here at the navy yard, a lot of those buildings. Just looking around here, it just looks like a modern office building. Even in this room, there are little whispers of the past in here. Just looking at some of the frames above your head, the ironwork and everything, the bricks that surround you here. As you can tell by the brick work above the door, you can see the archway. Most people dont know what happened here in this holding. We are going to head into the cafeteria area where you can see even more remnants of what happened here in the yard and i will tell you what happened in this building here. Here, take a look above your head, you can see the cranes above you. This is where those large, 16 inch guns were made. ,here they made all the large 16 inch guns. I have a photo to show you what the interior of this building looked like. They are on to do for levels but they ended up putting them all again,just to showcase to have that reminder all the time in the navy yard of where the past came from. You can see the photos that are up there that show where we came from. Just to remind the yard workers of the history here, the work that went on here and the events that happened throughout our time frame, from 1798 until today. So were going to head back to the museum and it is there that if you have any questions, please feel free to ask me, but were going to walk down the entire length of the outside of the museum so you can see how long the building was and still is today. Thats basically are walking tour of the navy yard. I hope you all enjoyed your time here today. If youre into sin learning more about navy history, we have this Wonderful Museum that is here. As you can see you can head all the way to the back, it covers the entire history of the u. S. Navy. We have some great artifacts on this way and programs that happen all the time at the navy yard within the museum, just go to our website or follow us on facebook. We always have all of our events from lectures to tours to special tours like this today. Again, thank you for coming in today and i hope you enjoyed this. [applause] up next on American History 1957, Potomac River naval command. This 20 minute navy film details the wide variety of activities undertaken by the u. S. Navy and the National Capital area during the cold war. From shipbuilding and designed andircraft Pilot Training Motion Picture production. The landmarks of washington dc are familiar the world over. Washington monument, Lincoln Memorial and jefferson
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.