This is a very extensive yard. The yard itself has seen a lot of different historical event. Events. The yard itself has changed dramatically over the many years. It was first founded in 1798 and it was around that time that the United States realized that we needed a Standing Military force. It was after the American Revolution that all the military was disbanded because of the sentiments from before the American Revolution. Who had a Standing Army stationed in the United States . The british. American merchant ships were being attacked in the mediterranean. We needed a Standing Military. More importantly we knew they navy to protect American Interest all over the globe. Thatongress basically said we yes, we need a navy. They passed a resolution founding the United States navy and commissions different naval yards to build a numerous amount igates for ther navu the navy. We realize is that not only did we need ships of being built but we needed navy yards to build those ships so Congress Needed a navy yard that was close to them so they could keep an eye on what the navy was doing. Where a better place to do that than right along the Anacostia River, right down the street from the u. S. Capitol so they could keep an eye on what was going on here. That suspicion of the military for the federal government at that time, thats why this area was chosen. The very first commandant of the navy yard retasked was tasked with building the yard was a man by the name of thomas stingy. He has a very long history with this navy yard. He builds it, destroys it, then builds it again. We are getting a little bit ahead of ourselves with that story. But again, this is really part of the original portion of the navy yard. The very first portion of the navy yard. We are going to head out to our second stop, which is just up the hill over there. Theres a small looking shack that is a nice looking shack when you get up close to it, but it has a long history behind it. So, feel free to get under the porch. Take a second and check it out. Its pretty unassuming right, . Just a single room, nothing too fancy. So the captain is the first commandant of the Washington Navy yard. Hes in charge of holding the facilities here. There are a few buildings that are on the property that are actually still around today, but when hes tasked with building is not only the shipbuilding facilities, which down the hill in that direction over there, you see how the hill slopes down. I was the first boat ramp area that they would build ships on and then launch them out. But they also have massive wood lots he was in charge of surrounding the navy yard, so cutting down all the lumber. He was also in charge of holding all the housing two for yard workers, and the officers who would stay here in the yard itself. And also in charge of building the gates thats behind us. That is latrobe gate, built i the famed architect benjamin latrobe. Does his name sounds familiar at all . Have been to the u. S. Capitol . He designed the capital. There is that familiarity. It was actually Thomas Jefferson who worked with him to get latrobe down here to design not only the gate thats there, but also the house thats right next to it, that is the house of the commandant of the navy yard. They designed the facilities that are up there. 1798, the yard starts picking up, theres more and more activity happening here. Just a few years later, lets say 1814, whats happening in the u. S. Around that time . The war of 1812 is happening. Is when the british 1814 started reading this area. Tingey is still commandant of the yard and there is a commodore by the name of Joshua Barney was put in charge of the defenses of washington, d. See washington dc. Theres actually militia that maryland and virginia militia that are brought to washington to help protect the capital. But you also have yard workers, sailors, and marines who are basically drafted into the effort to help defend washington. By the way, latrobe gate, just out of the gate and of the street, guess whats up there . The barracks. What barracks . The marine barracks. The whole reason why the marines are there is because of the Washington Navy yard. This gate is the oldest u. S. Ned marine guard post in the world. Thats the reason why the marines are at the barracks because of that guard post right there. We will get back to that in just a second. Back to the war of 1812, the british are making their way onto the city. The militia is sent out first to a place called bladensburg. Its at bladensburg that the militia are routed by the british, they are sent packing, and the sailors and marines are sent over the navy yard ridge, todays 11 street ridge. They are sent from the height on the other side and are there to defend the bridge. They were never told a militia turned and fled. They are there by themselves when the entire British Force comes up rated goes back and forth, Commodore Barney is wounded, the use of basically all the ammunition they have and they turn in because theres nothing else to them to do. Barney is captured and surrenders to the british. If you want to check that out later, you can. Because there is no defenses left, they start making their way onto the city. The navy yard here. Tingey is in charge and hes been told by secretary of the navy, when the british start making their way onto the city, we know its going to happen but if they start making their way into the city, burn the navy yard. We dont let into we dont want it to fall into the hands of the british area british. We dont want them using of those supplies. So he does. But before he does that, he evacuates. When john adams really put forth the effort to form the United States navy, he founded the United States navy library. Its basically books and tactical manuals from all around the world. He wanted the officers to read these books and learn from the best around the world. Tingey evacuated the navy yard library. United dates navys library from the United States navys library from the navy yard, and heres a question for you. Im going to be asking a lot of questions during this tour, so be prepared. This library is older, the whose library is older, the library of congress, or the library of the navy . The navy library, because they did not evacuate the library of congress when it was burned by the british. Dates navys library from the navy yard, and heres a question for you. Im going to be asking a lot of questions during this tour, so be prepared. This library is older, the library of congress, or the library of the navy . The navy library, because they did not evacuate the library of congress when it was burned by the british. We have that over the library of congress. The boat ramp that is there, he makes his way down the boat ramp. Theres a rowboat with other yard workers waiting for him after they put the torch through the yard and make their way down the anacostia to alexandria. Thats where they hide out for a few days until the british leave the city. He didnt torch all of the buildings, though, including the other houses that you see across the way over there. Those houses were untouched. There was really no wall surrounding the navy yard, and all the locals all that the navy had basically left this area. They went into all the houses and took everything that wasnt nailed down. When tingey came back, he came back to a gutted navy yard and he had to work on rebuilding the szilagyis that are here. As hes doing that, he puts in a proposal to congress saying, i want to build a wall around the navy yard and i wanted to be about 10 feet high. This building was actually brought to the indian had the szilagyi for a while, because they were lacking buildings, and they needed it it actually served as a telephone switchboard operator house served as a mailroom and served as a guard post. It was in use until 1930 x, when it was abandoned at indianhead, and it wasnt until the 1990s that somebody tracked it down. It wasnt until a few years ago that they picked it up and brought it back here and refurbished it into what you see today. As we start making our way back down the pathway, we are going to be crossing the street talking about whats over there. As we do, you will notice there are cannons that line the drive here. These are all cannons that were captured during different wars that we had, from the first barbary war all the way up until the civil war. One of the cannons was captured twice. I will show that to you as we get down the road here. Its actually the very last canon in this line. This little gun here, you can share it with your rants, later on if you take anybody else walking by this. This gun was captured during the first barbary war, and brought not to the navy yard, but down to the northwood naval yard, and put on display there. During the civil war, it falls to the confederates. They find this canon and say, we canon, and place it on to one of their gunboats with that gunboat was captured by a union navy ship and was brought here to the navy yard. This is the canon that was captured twice and is now here on this way of the Washington Navy yard. Thomas it is inscribed, and also basically just tracking it, as you can see on the top here it has a trophy marking. Whenever they would capture, they would market with a trophy number. Theres a little bit of navy yard history will every day and dont realize. We are going to cross the street, so we will go behind this pickup here and stick to the sidewalk. So the part that you see behind this anchor here, is named for a rear admiral who is the commandant of the yard 1905 to 1910, and was the son of one who painted the famous crossing of the delaware. Everybody has seen the painting, where its Washington Crossing the delaware with all the ice flow and everything. This park is basically what we call the quarter deck of the navy. It is the ceremonial Parade Ground for the navy yard and all of the navy. He a lot of ceremonies that happen here. Sometimes he lives in them and everything. Theres a lot of his horrible pieces that surround this park but we will mostly talk about this one right here. As you can he, the anchor from the u. S. Is enterprise, which is one of three Aircraft Carriers that actually was built before world war ii and survive the entire war. She was the most decorated Aircraft Carrier the most decorated naval ship from world or to. Saw a great length of service. The answer is here. Bill and believe is at the Naval Academy that they ring during Navy Football games if you ever have a chance to pop in, you can check it out. It was at one point in the south civic was the only Aircraft Carrier left in the pacific, because we lost the lexington, the hornet, the wasp, and the yorktown, and she was it great for those of you know your world war ii history, the effect was really a carrier war. The people have the most Aircraft Carriers, they would be the victors. At one point after losing the hornet and wasp and she was the only one left, somebody on her light deck on a banner that said enterprise versus japan. That was what it was at that point in time. Theres a lot of history surrounding this anchor, even though its just a big hunk of metal, just think of what this piece witnessed here. Some other things that surround the park here, some of the other housing. First off you can see the latrobe gate but also the tingey house, the commandants house, its across the parade deck. A little funny anecdote about that, when tingey died, he for some reason left the house in his will to his children because he loved house so much and he thought he really earned the house, which im not sure if you can will Government Property to your children, but he tried to, and of course the federal government didnt really honor those wishes. Some other things that surround this area, the buildings that you see on either side of you, when ships came to the navy yard to get reoutfitted or repaired, the crews could not stay aboard the ship as they were being worked on. So they are placed in housing surrounding the field here. The enlisted state in this building located behind you, officers stayed in the surrounding buildings over here. And, another building that i like to point out to people, if you take a look of there, its kind of the oddly shaped building with the hard bay windows at the top. That is the optical building, before radar. They used rangefinders above ships to get the range of other ships when they were firing their big guns toward ships to calibrate those guns. They actually did the calibrations of their. The big bay windows would slide open. They used certain points around washington, d. C. To calibrate the rangefinders. There were certain points that really dont move. First off, they use the u. S. Capitol. Second was the washington monument, and third was the masonic temple in alexandria. Those were used as the fixed points, so you have those calibrated. Today i believe its a big Conference Room up there. That was built in the early 1900s, so 1903. Im sorry, 1918 through 1919 is when they were calibrating the rangefinders up there. But it was probably built 1915, 1916 before they started calibrating everything up there. Anyone else . All right. So, again, just a lot of history in this area. How many of you have been to the Marine Corps Museum . I see some hands raised. Originally the Marine Corps Museum was located in that building right there. They realized they needed a bigger facility, and they moved it to quantico. As that museum was being built, they shut down this one and moved everything down there. Got Everything Else out of storage. Today across the street, the naval history and heritage command is based out of that building right across the way. The navy museum falls under the naval history and heritage commission. If we dont have any more questions, we will head to our next stop, which is a little bit of a hike but i promise you there some good stuff there. All right. Lets head on up. Were going to go through this holding here and just out the other side to the william iii. Today is the coffee shop but it has a different history and just coffee than just coffee. Lets head on through. So, in 1822, and john rogers designs and builds the first marine build railway. A lot of people get very different ideas when they think of Marine Railway. Its basically a winch with tracks with a palette, where the ship comes up and on top of the palette, i get sucked into the palette and gets hooked into the palette and is pulled up and out of the water so they can work on the hull, and winches back down into the water. This railway was actually built the first one here, 1822. When you see today here was built in the 1880s, 1890s. William the third, as you can see, and espresso bar or coffee shop, it really was the witch house for the Marine Railway. As you can see, out over there, you can see the tracks for it and everything too, the chef would be winched up and out of the water for. They were able to save the machinery there for the nice last window so everybody could put it out. You see remnants of the history of the navy yard like this throughout the yard itself. You see other items like this is a go through the rest of the tour. Its almost like a ghost of the past that is sitting there. For those of you who walk i this every day, now you know what it is exactly. He will take a look at some models that are there and show you what the navy yard look like in the very beginning and what it looked like at its heyday its heyday. So i always love you people in here because this really shows you what the navy yard look like in the very beginning. You look at this model here, this is what it looked like after the british had to burn the yard, and this is what it looked like as they started to rebuild it. As you can see by the outline you see with the white dashes, that is what the navy yard is kind of like today, or when it was like in its heyday, but you can see latrobe gate, tingey house, the farmhouse, the optical tower would be in this area here, the winch house area or Marine Railway where they first started working ships up and out of the water, and this is what it was like when they were starting to really get into the true shipbuilding facilities. Lets take a look at this model over here. This is what it looked like in the 1960s. And, as you can see, a lot of changes really havent. They filled in a lot of the land. You can still see a lot of the remnants. You have latrobe gate right there, the tingey house. Theres that optical tower i was talking about. Where are we at today . In this building. We passed through it, you can see the wench house is in this area here. This is when the navy yard was actually not known as navy yard. During the 1890s, the navy yards mission changes, which seems to happen throughout its history. It always changes. Before the 1890s, there were foundries as the country making naval guns. But their their procedure to look at how good the guns were, basically spot checking the guns to make sure they were made correctly, they had so many variations from all the different down trees. The navy was getting fed up. We should make our own guns. Its in the 1890s to about 1960 or the Washington Navy yard becomes known as a naval gun factory. This is where all the battleship guns are made, from 12 to 14 to 16 inch guns, 5 inch guns, 40 millimeter antiaircraft guns, all the guns for the navy that are mounted aboard a ship are made here. And, so that way they can really keep an i on quality control, whats coming out of the factories. Here at the gun factory, great factories and shops. A forge, warehouses and foundries. Overhead runways. Roads. And rail lines. As well