NEWS Site for new National Museum of the US Navy announced

[Griz882]

I wonder if it'd be feasible to get Olympia under the Douglass bridge? Seeing as Philly has been trying to get rid of her and she'd need USG deep pockets to get her fully restored. The bridge has a clearance of about 44 feet at low slack water...you'd need to step the masts and probably remove the funnels, obviously, but just eyeballing it....maybe?

Towing would be from Philly to DC via the Delaware, C&D, Chesapeake, and Potomac so no open water transits. Wouldn't be cheap, but seems technically feasible to me.

She would need to get some dry dock love in Philly before the transfer but I consider this one of the most beautiful museum ships in the world. I’d love to see it happen.

 

[Uncle Fester]

She would need to get some dry dock love in Philly before the transfer but I consider this one of the most beautiful museum ships in the world. I’d love to see it happen.

Beautiful, historically significant to the USN, and a rare boat besides - the only other afloat, intact Protected Cruiser in the world is Aurora* in St Petersburg. Heck, recommission her (SSN-717 decommed three years ago so the name's available) and give her an active status like Constitution.

A museum nerd can dream....

*Her crew mutinied and fired the first shots on the Winter Palace, kicking off the 1917 Revolution.

 

[jmcquate]

.....and she would be near the soldier she transported back from France after WWI.

 

[Griz882]

Another reason Philly or Boston would have been better…ship visits (US and allies) and room to expand.

 

[Damodred]

She would need to get some dry dock love in Philly before the transfer but I consider this one of the most beautiful museum ships in the world. I’d love to see it happen.

It would surely be a better fate than the other historically significant but lately unloved ship in Philadelphia is going to receive.

Come to think of it, that description actually applies to two different ships...

 

[Uncle Fester]

Another reason Philly or Boston would have been better…ship visits (US and allies) and room to expand.

Yes but neither has any significant, current links to the active Navy (besides Constitution and the Army-Navy game most years, I guess).

A few years back I would have said the old NAVSUP warehouse site in San Diego would have been perfect, especially if there could have been some sort of partnership with the Midway and the Maritime Museum. It's gone now and they're throwing up condo hi-rises as fast as they can, so that's out. Or the Norfolk waterfront around the Fort Norfolk site (next to EVMS not too far from Nauticus/Wisconsin).

 

[Hair Warrior]

Yes but neither has any significant, current links to the active Navy (besides Constitution and the Army-Navy game most years, I guess).

This is a few hundred yards due south of the Wells Fargo Center and Linc in Philly.

 

[cfam]

View attachment 41352
This is a few hundred yards due south of the Wells Fargo Center and Linc in Philly.

Despite the residual/small Navy presence at the former Navy Yard, it’s a stretch to say there are many links between Philly and the active Navy. Its time as a Navy town ended decades ago.

Aside from the inactive ships maintenance facility, the only other Navy facilities on the former Navy Yard are a propeller foundry and some NAVSEA engineering facilities, which are mostly contractor/GS run. I interned at the NAVSEA propulsion plant testing facility there in high school (they had/probably still have a full Arleigh Burke engineering space setup).

The rest of the facility has been turned into a commercial shipyard and corporate campus, and the old airfield is now an auto storage lot. Oddly enough they still haven’t gotten around to demolishing the former Navy Lodge and some of base housing, which are all abandoned. I drove around there a few weeks ago and didn’t see a single uniform.

Also, that’s an old satellite shot. The reserve fleet there now has between 20-25 ships at any given moment (most of which are in pretty sad shape), and only one big deck right now (the JFK). There are a few small deck amphibs, some USNS hulls, some FFGs, an LCS or two, some PCs, and a bunch of CGs.

 

[jmcquate]

What about Carderock?

 

[Griz882]

Beyond the need for some measure of force protection, there is no real need to have a direct link to an active Navy facility, or even the active duty navy. As we used to say when the army’s national museum was under construction, it isn’t the Army’s national museum, it is the Nations army museum. To be honest, I’d say the DC Navy yard has less to do with the “real” navy than Boston! The only service that has their museum near their true, historical, “home” is the Marine Corps. NMUSA is at Belvoir, an old Engineer base turned into a giant admin facility. The NMUSAF is a close second to NMUSMC with their location near the Huffman Prairie Flying Field.

One last mark against the DC location…there is zero room to grow and the Navy museum will suffer for that.

 

[DanMa1156]

lmao no. it's to do with the vagaries of one highly placed person who no longer works at NHHC, plus covid, plus sequestration, plus budget shenanigans, plus lack of CNO sponsorship, plus the fact that NAVSEA (and, especially, NAVSEA 08) is Right There, etc etc

but really, it's that one person moving on in their life that opened up the doors to finally, FINALLY moving forward with a NMUSN site.

Sites NHHC had verbals to use for NMUSN but died on the vine:

• National Harbor
• Unnamed site one block over from Nats Park
• Disused Smithsonian Museum on the Mall

The for-realsies site at 4th & Tingey has been in the mix for... god, for over 10 years now.

Godspeed to NHHC, WNY tenants, and all involved. Gonna be a hell of a ride.

What happened to the whole announcement a few years back near Nats stadium (I think) where it was “harkening back” to the rail yard and had a very odd shape to it? (Sorry my DC geography isn’t fantastic).

 

[JTS11]

Also, according to wikipedia FWIW, the loadmaster had flight controls with 10% authority. Wild.

Edit: you can even watch it on CSPAN:

User Clip: Skycrane external

Skycrane external

www.c-span.org

I watched that clip, and it's very impressive. I can guarantee you a CH-53E couldn't do that.

I wish there was a stick monkey in the back while picking external loads to make more precise corrections, while I was doing it. I'm curious if those old Army CH-54s had AFCS upgrades in their commercial role.. Also curious how much that statue weighed. That crew nailed it, but that's not one you'd want to fuck up. 😆

 

[Griz882]

I watched that clip, and it's very impressive. I can guarantee you a CH-53E couldn't do that.

I wish there was a stick monkey in the back while picking external loads to make more precise corrections, while I was doing it. I'm curious if those old Army CH-54s had AFCS upgrades in their commercial role.. Also curious how much that statue weighed. That crew nailed it, but that's not one you'd want to fuck up. 😆

According to the Architect of the Capitol it weighs 15,000 pounds (plus whatever crap politicians and construction workers shove into internal areas for posterity).

 

[Hair Warrior]

According to the Architect of the Capitol it weighs 15,000 pounds (plus whatever crap politicians and construction workers shove into internal areas for posterity).

There isn’t any stuff/debris inside the Capitol dome. Just a ladderwell.

 

[Flash]

Beyond the need for some measure of force protection, there is no real need to have a direct link to an active Navy facility, or even the active duty navy. As we used to say when the army’s national museum was under construction, it isn’t the Army’s national museum, it is the Nations army museum. To be honest, I’d say the DC Navy yard has less to do with the “real” navy than Boston! The only service that has their museum near their true, historical, “home” is the Marine Corps. NMUSA is at Belvoir, an old Engineer base turned into a giant admin facility. The NMUSAF is a close second to NMUSMC with their location near the Huffman Prairie Flying Field.

I think any big port town with a historical Navy presence would do with Philly, San Diego or Boston all being great choices for the museum. In my 'perfect' world I think Annapolis would be a great choice, especially as you could get some ships there with little issue, but I'm pretty sure there isn't much room for it. And then there is Norfolk, not the most convenient for tourists but you'd likely have plenty of room and it is a Navy town.

What about Carderock?

Not very convenient to get in and out of and the locals would likely raise holy hell against any expansion, with the money to make sure they are heard loud and clear.