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Staycation! The Ladies of BLDG 92 Take a Tour of Their Own Backyard

Photo by Adrienne Murray (left to right): Meredith Wisner, Daniella Romano, Emelie Evans, Aileen Chumard and Adrienne Murray (not pictured) take a trip into the Dry Docks

Sometimes we forget just how awe inspiring the Navy Yard can be. In terms of scale it almost can't be beat--and that's saying something considering the magnitude of the city we live in. Still, it is possible to become inured to it all. Those of us who are residents of this fair city may relate to having friends in from out of town and taking them to that neighborhood joint that just happens to serve the best chicken adobo (or what have you), followed by artisanal cocktails at the speakeasy down the street. Your friends are dazzled, and you are given the gift of see with fresh eyes just how amazing your city can be. We imagine this is how the folks at GMD Shipyard felt as we frolicked through their dry dock a few weeks ago.  

Thanks to Daniella Romano, Vice President of Exhibitions and Programs at BLDG 92, we five ladies got a tremendous behind the scenes tour of Dry Dock 5.  Are we experts?  Hardly. However, we did learn some basics, and came away with a clearer understanding of what it feels like to work down in the dry docks.  

Dry docks, which have been discussed in a previous post, are primarily used to service ships in need of repair.  What makes a dry dock especially useful is their ability to allow ships to be put up on blocks--called keel blocks--in order to clean and service their lower portions.  What makes dry docks especially phenomenal is that they allow you to walk almost fully upright underneath huge ocean going vessels.  The mental mathematics of how much steel and machinery is floating mere inches from ones head, and how it is supported by little more than cement cubes cannot be expressed.  

From this photo you can see that Dry Dock 5 offered a lot of room for the ship undergoing repairs during our visit.  She and her twin, Dry Dock 6 measure approximately 1091 feet long, 143 feet wide and are 41 feet deep.  That's some bathtub! 

Another thing that really struck us was how much water the caisson door (background, above) is holding back, and the engineering that is required to manage that kind of force.  We were told that problems with the dry dock are relatively rare and that they typically arise out of a failure of building materials, not the structure itself.  When you consider our oldest dry dock was completed in 1851 and remains fully functional today it really brings home level of craft that goes into building these massive structures.  

Needless to say, we emerged from this trip feeling inspired and rejuvenated.  We hear so often how meaningful it is for our visitors to see their old stomping grounds or to finally get past the gates and learn what it is we're doing back here.  Sharing our Yard is one of the great joys of our job, and we love playing host to each and every one of you.  I must say though, it was nice to take a page from your book and look up at the sites--or rather down in this case--and appreciate our amazing surroundings.