Philadelphia Naval Shipyard

The Philadelphia Naval Business Center, formerly known as the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard and Philadelphia Navy Yard, was the first naval shipyard of the United States. The U.S. Navy reduced its activities there in the 1990s, and ended most of them on September 30, 1995. Soon after, the west end of the site became a commercial shipyard, currently called the Aker Philadelphia Shipyard.

Presently, Navy activities there include the Naval Surface Warfare Center Ship Systems Engineering Station, Naval Facilities Engineering Command Mid-Atlantic Public Works Department Pennsylvania (NAVFAC MIDLANT PWD PA) and the Naval Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility (NISMF), which stores decommissioned and mothballed warships and auxiliary naval vessels.

History

The yard has its origins in a shipyard on Philadelphia's Front Street on the Delaware River that was founded in 1776 and became an official United States Navy site in 1801.

After the advent of ironclad warships made the site obsolete, new facilities were built in 1871 on League Island at the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers.

The Naval Aircraft Factory was established at the League Island site in 1917. Just after World War I, a 350-ton capacity hammerhead crane was ordered for the yard. Manufactured in 1919 by the McMyler-Interstate Company in Bedford, Ohio, the crane was called the League Island Crane by its builder. Weighing 3,500 tons, the crane was shipped to the yard in sections, and it was the world's largest crane at the time.^[2] The "League Island Crane" was for many years the Navy's largest crane.

Its greatest period came in World War II, when the yard employed 40,000 people who built 53 ships and repaired 574. During this period, the yard built the famed battleship New Jersey and its 45,000-ton sister ship, the Wisconsin. In the Naval Laboratory Philip Abelson developed the liquid thermal diffusion technique for separating U-235 for the Manhattan Project.

After the war, the workforce dropped to 12,000, and in the 1960s, new ships began to be contracted out to private companies. The yard built its last new ship, the command ship Blue Ridge, in 1970.

The yard's closure was originally recommended in 1991 by the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, as a result of foreign competition and reduced needs due to the end of the Cold War. Although local politicians tried to keep the Yard open, it finally closed in 1995 with a loss of 7,000 jobs. Senator Arlen Specter charged that the Department of Defense did not disclose the official report on the closing. This resulted in a controversy that led to further legal disputes, to no avail. Since its transfer from the government, the west end of property has been leased to Aker Kværner, a tanker and commercial shipbuilding firm.

The memorial to the Four Chaplains currently resides on the grounds of the shipyard.

The PNBC is home to several companies as the site continues to expand and develop. Clothing manufacturer Urban Outfitters consolidated its Philadelphia headquarters on the site, while Tasty Baking Company, makers of Tastykakes, is in the process of moving their headquarters and main bakery to the site as well as pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia hosts the annual Philadelphia Base Ball Fair & Exhibition at the Navy Yard Parade Grounds.

Notable projects

• New Jersey
• Wisconsin: Last keel laid for a completed battleship of the United States Navy, 25 January 1941^[3]
• The final ships built were LST-1179, LST-1180 and LST-1181 starting in 1969 and completed in early 1971.
• Philadelphia Experiment: site of the supposed Philadelphia Experiment.

See also

• League Island

Notes

External links

• Philadelphia Naval Business Center official site
• Barry Yeoman, Subsidies at Sea, Mother Jones