Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

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Aerial photo from 1995
Philadelphia Reserve Fleet 1955
Navy Park Philadelphia entrance 2016

The Philadelphia Navy Yard was the first state-owned shipyard in the United States . It was founded as a state shipyard in 1801 on the site of a previous shipyard and officially closed in 1995. She built ships for the US Navy .

history

The shipyard was first built in 1776 on Front Street on the southern edge of Philadelphia . In 1801 she became a state shipyard, in 1871/76 she was relocated to League Island at the confluence of the Delaware River and Schuylkill River . In the following decades, especially during the First and Second World Wars , it was expanded more and more. It was the first shipyard in the world to use floating dry docks .

In 1917 the state-owned Naval Aircraft Factory was also opened on the premises of the shipyard.

During the Second World War , the shipyard had its largest workforce with 40,000 employees. 54 warships were built and around 574 repaired. During this time, the shipyard mainly built destroyers , but also three battleships , two aircraft carriers and two other cruisers .

After the World War, the workforce was reduced to 12,000. In the 1960s, more and more orders for new ships were awarded to private shipyards. The shipyard now concentrated primarily on the repair or overhaul of warships. The last newbuilding was the USS Blue Ridge in 1970.

In 1991, the first Bush administration set up a commission to review the requirements of the US Navy after the Cold War . This came to the conclusion that the shipyard was no longer needed. The shipyard was officially closed in 1995, but some projects continued until 2003. Today it is a museum shipyard.

Today there is a large industrial park on the site.

The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard has been listed as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places since December 22, 1999 .

Known ships

Web links

Commons : Philadelphia Naval Shipyard  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Joseph-James Ahern: Philadelphia Naval Shipyard . Arcadia Publishing Library Editions, 1997, ISBN 978-1-5316-6069-7 (English).
  • Ron Hess, Jefferson P. Marquis, John F. Schank, Malcolm MacKinnon: The Closing and Reuse of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard . Rand Publishing, 2001, ISBN 978-0-8330-3043-6 (English).
  • Jeffery M. Dorwart, Jean K. Wolf: The Philadelphia Navy Yard: From the Birth of the US Navy to the Nuclear Age (=  Barra Foundation Book ). University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-8122-3575-3 (English).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History. In: navyyard.org. Navy Park Philadelphia, accessed February 26, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Business booms at old naval shipyard in Philadelphia. In: www.foxnews.com. Fox News, February 11, 2013, accessed February 26, 2020 .
  3. ^ Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Historic District. In: National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed February 26, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b History. In: shipbuildinghistory.com. Shipbuilding History, May 21, 2011, accessed February 26, 2020 .

Coordinates: 39 ° 53 '24 "  N , 75 ° 10' 48"  W.