Washington Navy Yard
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tiki-4
N 38° 52.343 W 076° 59.761
18S E 326843 N 4304508
The Washington Navy Yard, authorized by the first Secretary of the Navy, Benjamin Stoddert, in 1799, is the U.S. Navy's oldest shore establishment.
Waymark Code: WM2XA
Location: District of Columbia, United States
Date Posted: 10/20/2005
Views: 27
It occupies land set aside by George Washington for use by the Federal Government along the Anacostia River. The original boundaries that were established in 1800, along 9th and M Streets SE, are still marked by a white brick wall, built in 1809 along with a guard house. During its early years, the Navy Yard became the Navy's largest shipbuilding and shipfitting facility. Twenty-two vessels were constructed on the Yard, ranging from small 70-foot gunboats to the Minnesota, a 246-foot steam frigate. In 1812, the USS Constitution came to the Yard to refit and prepare for combat action.
The War of 1812 found the Navy Yard a vital strategic link in the defense of the young capital city. On 14 August 1814 the British, under Admiral Sir George Cockburn and Major General Robert Ross, landed at Marlboro on the Patuxent River. Ten days later they brushed aside a hastily gathered American force at Bladensburg and marched into Washington. It became clear the Washington Navy Yard could not be defended and Captain Thomas Tingey, the Yard's Commandant, with the concurrence of the President and the Secretary of the Navy, ordered the Yard burned. All the stores that could not be evacuated, the unfinished Columbia and Argus, and most of the Yard's buildings were consumed in the flames. Only the Latrobe gate, Tingey's own quarters, now Quarters A, the home of the second in command, adjoining offices, the barracks, and the small schooner Lynx escaped the fire. After the fire, looting by the local populace took its took and Commodore Tingey recommended that the height of the eastern wall be increased to ten feet.
Era: Pre-Napoleonic
General Comments: Not listed
Related web site: Not listed
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