page_title: Brooklyn Navy Yard
section_title: After World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Brooklyn Navy Yard / History / 20th century operations / After World War II
caption_attribution_description: U.S. Navy New York Naval Shipyard workers las the keel plates for the aircraft carrier USS Constellation (CVA-64) on 14 September 1957.
context_page_description: The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a shipyard and industrial complex located in northwest Brooklyn in New York City, New York. The Navy Yard is located on the East River in Wallabout Bay, a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlears Hook in Manhattan. It is bounded by Navy Street to the west, Flushing Avenue to the south, Kent Avenue to the east, and the East River on the north. The site, which covers 225.15 acres, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
  The Brooklyn Navy Yard was established in 1801. From the early 1810s through the 1960s, it was an active shipyard for the United States Navy, and was also known as the United States Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn and New York Naval Shipyard at various points in its history. The Brooklyn Navy Yard produced wooden ships for the U.S. Navy through the 1870s, and steel ships after the American Civil War in the 1860s.
  The Brooklyn Navy Yard has been expanded several times, and at its peak, it covered over 356 acres. The efforts of its 75,000 workers during World War II earned the yard the nickname "The Can-Do Shipyard".
context_section_description: In November 1945, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was formally renamed the "New York Naval Shipyard", per an order from the federal government. From the yard's establishment in 1801 until the name change, the yard had been officially named the "New York Navy Yard", but the public popularly referred to the yard as "Brooklyn Navy Yard", and the government called it "United States Naval Shipyard, Brooklyn". According to one naval officer, the name change was conducted because "it would lead to better efficiency".
  Following the end of World War II in 1945, industrial demand in Brooklyn declined sharply, and many white families moved away from Brooklyn to suburbs on Long Island. Public housing developments were built around the New York Naval Shipyard. The construction of the elevated Brooklyn–Queens Expressway to the south further isolated the shipyard from the surrounding community, although the segment of the expressway near the navy yard did not open until 1960. The workforce was scaled down to approximately 10,000 people by the end of 1947. At the same time, the Navy was selling off unused fleet, and new contracts for Navy vessels were being awarded to private shipyards. The New York Naval Shipyard celebrated its 150th anniversary in 1951. By this time, the yard had mostly shifted to manufacturing aircraft carriers, three of which were under construction.
  When the Korean War started in 1950, the New York Naval Shipyard temporarily became active again, and by 1953, the shipyard had 20,000 workers on its payroll. The yard started retrofitting aircraft carriers to accommodate jet aircraft. For instance, in 1952, the New York Naval Shipyard renovated the World War II-era Antietam into the United States' first angled-deck aircraft carrier. A contract for the construction of Constellation, a super aircraft carrier, was awarded to New York Naval Shipyard in August 1952. The Naval Shipyard was also contracted to build Saratoga and Independence in the late 1950s, as well as six amphibious transports in the 1960s. Despite this increased activity, the New York Naval Shipyard lost about half of its workforce when Korean War hostilities ended in 1953.
  The keel of Constellation was laid in 1957. Constellation was nearly complete when she was damaged in a large fire on December 19, 1960, killing 49 people and injuring another 323. This caused her commissioning to be delayed by several months, to October 1961. In addition to the damage suffered from the Constellation fire, the New York Naval Shipyard was gradually becoming technologically obsolete. Newer ships were too large to pass under the nearby Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges, and so could not get to the yard. The number of workers at New York Naval Shipyard continued to decline, and in 1963, this attracted the attention of U.S. Senator Kenneth B. Keating, who attempted to preserve the 11,000 remaining jobs.
caption: The keel-laying of USS Constellation at New York Naval Shipyard in 1957
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