Photo Essay – Touring the Navy Yard’s Navy Museum
By Larry Janezich
Posted on July 22, 2024
The Navy Museum on the grounds of the Washington Navy Yard is readying to relocate to a proposed new building at 5th and M Street, SE, outside of the restricted area and open to the public. The new museum will be a showpiece of modern architecture and though it hopes to open in late 2025, the timing – and the cost – appears to be uncertain at present.
Those interested in naval history – especially in armaments – can still book a free tour of the Navy Yard Museum on the second and fourth Saturday of every month, through Eventbrite https://bit.ly/3We9c67 or by emailing the museum at NHHC_NMUSNNavyMuseum@us.navy.mil. There is a morning tour and an afternoon tour, and reservations need to be made a couple of weeks in advance. Access is convenient for Capitol Hill residents – through the O Street Gate off 11th Street, SE.
The tour features armaments, historic buildings, and the museum.
Here’s the National Museum of the US Navy – a former naval gun factory – which opened to the public in 1963.
Nearby is the Cold War Gallery, currently closed. Our guide – Education Specialist Mike Galloway – said that the Naval History and Heritage Command which oversees all of the Navy’s museums was ordered to retract their footprint at the location, so the artifacts from this Gallery were moved into storage or for restoration, awaiting the opening of the new museum.
This is what you see when you walk through the entrance of the Navy Museum.
The first exhibit one encounters is the “fighting top” from the mast of the USS Constitution – the oldest commissioned vessel in the US Navy, which is berthed in Boston. The Constitution’s three masts carry platforms called” fighting tops.” In battle, Marine sharpshooters fired down on the enemy’s decks.
The Corsair fighter bomber was one of the most effective U.S. aircraft used in WWII and the Korean Conflict.
A WWII Japanese kamikaze plane used to attack U.S. warships.
Two .38 caliber turret mounted guns used against enemy aircraft from the USS Reno – an Atlanta-class light cruiser designed and built to specialize in antiaircraft warfare.
The tour continued outside of the Museum. Galloway said that the first mission of the Navy Yard was ship building, but since the 1960s the mission has been administrative – pushing papers – and ceremonial. The Navy Yard has historically been a largely civilian enterprise because of the large number of laborers involved in ship building. In addition, to artifacts and ceremonial functions, the Navy Yard serves as a depot for the storage of armaments.
Here’s a photo showing three types of armaments at the Navy Yard – experimental, historically significant guns, and trophy guns captured by the US Navy during battles. The cannon in the foreground is a trophy gun captured from the Confederate Army during an attempt to blockade the Potomac River. Also pictured is Mike Galloway, our guide.
An anchor from the USS Enterprise – the first nuclear aircraft carrier in the world. It took part in numerous missions and battles from 1961 until 2012.
Galloway says tour members always ask about the high tower at the Navy Yard – the Range Finding Tower and Optical Shop. During the WWII naval gun factory era, the Navy Yard manufactured long range optics – rangefinders – in the building. The gunsights were calibrated at the top of the tower, based on known distances – such as the Washington Monument and the George Washington Masonic Temple in Alexandria.
Here’s a photo of one of the two titanium pressure hulls from the Navy’s submersible – the Alvin – that discovered the wreck of the titanic in 1985. Behind it is the Navy Museum from another angle.
A number of large pieces are found the park which lies between the Museum and the Anacostia River. Here’s a photo of a 16 inch gun – a weapon this size was only mounted on the biggest battle ships.
This is a steel plate test shield used as a target to test how large a projectile from a cannon had to be to penetrate a ship’s hull. Civil War era Rear Admiral John A. Dahlgren, who founded the Navy’s Ordnance Department, worked at the Navy Yard and was known for inventing a number of large-caliber guns for the Navy. Dahlgren oversaw testing of cannon which afforded entertainment for by-invitation-only Washington insiders. The admiral was a friend of President Abraham Lincoln who enjoyed watching the tests. Lincoln spent the afternoon of April 15, 1865, at the Navy Yard with Dahlgren. Later that evening he attended My American Cousin at Ford’s Theater.
To follow – the proposed designs for the new Navy Museum at 5th and M Streets, SE.
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