Brooklyn Navy Yard The United States Navy Yard , New York , also known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard and the New York Naval Shipyard ( NYNSY ) , is a shipyard located in Brooklyn , New York , northeast of the Battery on the East River in Wallabout Basin , a semicircular bend of the river across from Corlear ' s Hook in Manhattan . It was bounded by Navy Street , Flushing and Kent Avenues , and at the height of its production of warship s for the United States Navy , it covered over . Navy . Following the American Revolution , the waterfront site was used to build merchant vessels . Federal authorities purchased the old docks and of land for forty thousand dollars in 1801 , and the property became an active U . S . Navy shipyard five years later , in 1806 . The offices , store - houses and barracks were constructed of handmade bricks , and the yard ' s oldest structure ( located in Vinegar Hill ) , the 1807 federal style commandant ' s house , was designed by Charles Bulfinch , architect of the United States Capitol in Washington , D . C . . Many officers were housed in Admiral ' s Row . Military chain of command was strictly observed . During the yard ' s construction of Robert Fulton ' s steam frigate , " Fulton " , launched in 1815 , the year of Fulton ' s death , the Navy Yard ' s chief officers were listed as follows : Captain Commandant , Master Commandant , Lieutenant of the Yard , Master of the Yard , Surgeon of the Yard & Marine Barracks , Purser of the Navy Yard , Naval Storekeeper , Naval Constructor , and a major commanding the Marine Corps detachment . The Naval Hospital , constructed 1830 - 1838 and rebuilt 1841 - 1843 , was decommissioned in the mid - 1970s . The nation ' s first ironclad ship , " Monitor " , was fitted with its revolutionary iron cladding at the Continental Iron Works in nearby Greenpoint . By the American Civil War , the yard had expanded to employ about 6000 men . In 1890 , the ill - fated " Maine " was launched from the Yard ' s ways . On the eve of World War II , the yard contained more than five miles ( 8 km ) of paved streets , four drydocks ranging in length from 326 to 700 feet ( 99 to 213 meters ) , two steel shipways , and six pontoons and cylindrical floats for salvage work , barracks for marines , a power plant , a large radio station , and a railroad spur , as well as the expected foundries , machine shops , and warehouses . In 1937 the battleship " North Carolina " was laid down . In 1938 , the yard employed about ten thousand men , of whom one - third were Works Progress Administration ( WPA ) workers . The battleship " Iowa " was completed in 1942 followed by the " Missouri " which became the site of the Surrender of Japan 2 September 1945 . On 12 January 1953 , test operations began on " Antietam " , which emerged in December 1952 from the yard as America ' s first angled - deck aircraft carrier . When the US Navy took possession of the motor torpedo boat PT 109 from the vessel ' s manufacturer Elco on 10 July 1942 , the boat was delivered to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for fitting . This boat was sunk in the Pacific in August 1943 and became famous years later when its young commanding officer , LTJG John F . Kennedy , entered politics . At its peak , during World War II , the yard employed 70 , 000 people , 24 hours a day . During World War II , the pedestrian walkways on the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridge s spanning the East River offered a good overhead view of the navy yard , and were therefore encased in order to prevent espionage . Commercial usage . About two years before the shipyard closed , word spread of its impending closure . Seymour Melmen , an engineering economist at the Columbia University Graduate School of Engineering , looked into the plight of the shipyard workers at the N . Y . N . S . and came up with a detailed plan for converting the then New York Naval Ship Yard into a commercial shipyard which would have saved most of the skilled shipyard jobs . The plan was never put in place . The Wagner Administration looked to the auto industry to build a car plant inside the Yard . No U . S . car manufacturer was interested and foreign car manufacturers claimed that with the conversion of the dollar , it was too expensive . The Navy decommissioned the yard in 1966 . The Johnson Administration refused to sell the yard to the City of New York for 18 months . When the new Nixon Administration came into power they signed the papers to sell the yard to the city . Leases were signed inside the yard even before the sale of the yard to the City was signed . In 1967 Seatrain Shipbuilding , which was wholly owned by Seatrain Lines , signed a lease with the Commerce Labor Industry Corporation of Kings ( CLICK ) which was established as a non - profit body to run the yard for the city . CLICK ' s lease with the newly formed Seatrain Shipbuilding was not very business friendly . Seatrain planned to build five Very Large Crude Carriers ( VLCC ' s ) and seven container ships for Seatrain Lines . It eventually built four VLCCs ( the largest ships ever to be built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard ) , eight barges and one ice - breaker barge . The last ship to be built in the Brooklyn Navy Yard was the VLCC " Bay Ridge " , built by Seatrain Shipbuilding . In 1977 the Bay Ridge was converted from a VLCC to a FPSOV [ Floating Production Storage Offtake Vessel ] . The Bay Ridge was renamed Kuito and is operating for Chevron off of the Coast of Angola in 400 meters of water in the Kuito oil field . 1976 would bring peak employment inside the yard with nearly 6 , 000 workers with Seatrain Shipbuilding and Coastal Dry Dock & Repair accounting for 80 % of the employment . In 1979 Seatrain Lines closed its gates , ending the history of Brooklyn shipbuilding . In 1972 Coastal Dry Dock & Repair Corp leased the three small dry docks and several buildings inside the yard from CLICK . Coastal Drydock only repaired and converted US Navy vessels but closed in 1987 . CLICK had been replaced by the non - profit Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation in 1981 . In 1987 the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation failed in all attempts to lease any of the six dry docks and buildings to any shipbuilding or ship - repair company . The Yard has become an area of private manufacturing and commercial activity . Today , more than 200 businesses operate at the Yard and employ approximately 5 , 000 people . Brooklyn Grange Farms operates a commercial farm on top of Building 3 . Steiner Studios is one of the yard ' s more prominent tenants with one of the largest production studios outside of Los Angeles . Many artists also lease space and have established an association called Brooklyn Navy Yard Arts . In November 2011 , Brooklyn Navy Yard Center at BLDG 92 , a museum dedicated to the yard ' s history and future , opened its doors . The Yard has three piers and a total of 10 berths ranging from 350 to long , with ten - foot deck height and 25 to 40 feet ( 7 to 12 meters ) of depth alongside . The drydocks are now operated by GMD Shipyard Corp . A federal project maintains a channel depth of 35 feet ( 10 m ) from Throggs Neck to the yard , about two miles ( 3 km ) from the western entrance , and thence 40 feet ( 12 m ) of depth to the deep water in the Upper Bay . Currents in the East River can be strong , and congestion heavy . Access to the piers requires passage under the Manhattan Bridge ( a suspension span with a clearance of and the Brooklyn Bridge ( a suspension span with a clearance of . Certain buildings have also been given landmark status . Quarters A , the commander ' s quarters building , is a National Historic Landmark . The Navy Yard Hospital Building ( R95 ) and Surgeon ' s Residence ( R1 ) are both designated as NYC Landmark buildings . A report commissioned by the National Guard suggests that the entirety of the Admiral ' s Row property meets the eligibility criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places . Admiral ' s Row has fallen into disrepair and has sparked a landmarks debate .