Brooklyn Navy Yard

Founded as a federal naval shipyard in 1801, the Brooklyn Navy Yard served the United States Navy for 165 years and became one of the nation’s most important centers of shipbuilding, repair, and maritime labor. Vessels associated with the Yard include USS Monitor, USS Arizona, and USS Missouri, and employment reached roughly 70,000 workers during World War II. After the Navy decommissioned the facility in 1966, New York City transformed the waterfront complex into an active industrial park.

Visitors can begin at Building 92, where the permanent "Brooklyn Navy Yard: Past, Present & Future" exhibition interprets the site’s naval, industrial, labor, and community history. Scheduled guided tours provide the best way to enter more of the secure working campus and may include historic machine shops, World War II-era buildings, oral histories, and Dry Dock No. 1, which dates to 1851 and remains in use. The Yard is especially rewarding because it preserves layers of American maritime history while continuing to function as a place of manufacturing and innovation.