I recently had the chance to scout the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which is always a fun experience. The Navy Yard, for those who don’t know, is a massive shipyard complex near DUMBO dating back to the 1700’s. The land was purchased by the government in 1801 for use as an active Navy Shipyard, and at its peak during World War II, employed over 70,000 workers. It was decommissioned in the 1960’s and sold to New York City, and is currently being used in a number of different ways, including as the city’s foremost movie studio space, Steiner Studios.
On my recent trip, I had the chance to see the ship repair dry docks in operation, which was really amazing:
Though it looks small in the picture, this ship was huge – the ramp should give you a sense of proportion, and it actually stretches all the way back to include that white structure in the background.
Incredibly, the entire thing is balanced on a series of small rectangular supports:
Quick primer in dry docking: when the dock pictured above is filled with water, a ship is sailed in and the enormous gate pictured below closed. The water is then pumped out, and as the boat lowers, it is carefully positioned to rest on the supports.
Finally, when the repairs are finished, the dock is flooded and the ship floats out.
Nearby was an empty dry dock:
The gate keeping the East River out (I love how the curve makes it look as though the water pressure is bending it inward):
Though I’m sure this is old hat to some of you, this is one of those amazing engineering feats that boggles my liberal-arts-degree brain. How does one know if the supports are strong enough to hold a ship of such magnitude? How can you be sure the base of the dock can support the weight?
And most importantly, why doesn’t the boat just topple over to one side? See below for an extreme example:
Looking back on it in this picture, I also have to say that the design of the dock is designed in a very aesthetically pleasing way – almost looks like some sort of post-modern installation:
In my experience, the Brooklyn Navy Yard is very agreeable to filming, and offers a wide variety of shooting spaces, from dockside views of the city to vacant warehouses (interesting historical note: during World War II, the pedestrian walkways on both the Williamsburg and Manhattan bridges were completely encased to prevent potential spies from seeing into the Navy Yard).
Also, there are a ton of locations that look like the sort of place where people in movies drive someone to bump them off. For example:
Also from the Brooklyn Navy Yard: the dying yet beautiful Admiral’s Row and the sketchy-as-sketch-can-be Brooklyn Navy Yard Cocktail Lounge.
-SCOUT
I recently moved to Brooklyn and during the move my father mentioned to me that when he was in the Army in the early 60s that he shipped out to Germany from the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He was in Army Intelligence and was trained at a decommissioned base in Baltimore and then driven up on busses to the Navy Yard where they set sail to Germany after staying a night in some low end Brooklyn motel near the Navy Yard.
Apparently also when he left they were building the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and when he returned at the end of his service it was finished.
Great minds thinking alike today! Just yesterday I came across a giant boat dry docked in Philadelphia yesterday morning when shopping, I’d never seen it before (I don’t get down that way much) but according to wikipedia it has been there since 1996- I’m going to feature it on Retro Roadmap but haven’t even downloaded the photo I took with my camera. Here’s some info – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_United_States – enjoy!
[...] Dry-Docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 04Jan10, Scouting NY [...]
Greetings
To answer a question or two about drydocks….each different type of ship has a plan for where each of those blocks (they’re usually solid re-enforced concrete) are to be located. They set those blocks up on the floor of the drydock before the ship comes in using a surveyor’s transit to place them exactly. Once the ship is floated in and somewhat in position, they close the door behind it and start pumping it out. At that point there’s a diver in the water that is underneath the ship and can visually see how the ship is settling onto the blocks and is in communication with the shipyard crew above. The diver tells them which way the ship has to be moved so it sits squarely on the blocks once it’s settled in. It’s a slow process !
Also while this is happening, they may be ballasting the ship so it sit’s more level to assist also. (Ballasting is moving water around into different tanks inside the ship)
[...] [...]
[...] One of my favorite parts of the tour was exploring the dry docks used for repairing and building new ships. I have two pictures in the above slideshow of the dry docks and you can also learn more and see photos on these two posts I came across: “Dry Dock #1, Brooklyn Navy Yard” and “Dry-Docked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.“ [...]