Courtesy Photo | Looking East at Completion of Wet Slip #1. Image Credit: (circa 1907 divided back...... read more read more
What is known today as Wet Slip #1 has a long rich history which is often overlooked.
Along its northern length as then an unimproved creek off of the Elizabeth River, this area started out some 220 years ago as the newly formed Gosport Shipyard's southern boundary. Over time the Federal yard would outgrow the original 16 acres of land and expand southward, yet an opportunity to leverage and straight-line the creek into a more usable function for the nation's most important shipyard at the time soon became a reality, the creek became a usable timber dock.
What pray tell is a timber dock? Think of a calm water basin that felled trees and sawn lumber could be floated into to preserve same till the need for use was called upon. With the early 1840s completion of Building 28 Mast House, Building 29 Boat House along with Buildings 30 - 33 as timber houses the Gosport Navy Yard at that time revolved around wooden ships and the wooden materials to repair same. The timber dock was centric to supporting antebellum Gosport as the Navy's most important construction and repair yard on the east coast.
The timber dock was crossed with a combination railroad trestle and wood deck roadway to its western end to facilitate straight line transport north to south within the campus along with a stone dam and roadway atop with a small opening to float in materials from the main channel of the Elizabeth River. There were a set of gates that could be closed at this opening to control the water level within the timber dock also.
As the calendar turned into the early 1900s a major rebuild of the timber dock structure began with setting of cofferdams made from wood and packed with dredge to allow a stone quay wall to be constructed. Some of this stone work remains to this very day as stone is forever with the correct craftsmanship.
Also during this timeframe the timber dock is altered to its present day configuration due to the removal of the stone dam near the river and the railroad trestle and roadway structure near the west end. The days of wooden ship support were waning and the need to dock multiple ships gave the timber dock basically a new function and a new name as we refer to this area as Wet Slip #1. The railroad track is relocated into a newly formed asphalt roadway near today's Building 60, then the "new" Power Plant at the head of the structure.
Today we might drive by Wet Slip #1 without a single passing thought, yet to know how it came about is important. While appearances have drastically changed this structure over the centuries and no matter which name you call it, depending on the era you study, it has provided unbroken service to this Nation.
Wet Slip #1 still contributes to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard landscape as a place for Uncle Sam's modern fleet to take shelter from the heaviest of storms as a safe harbor along with the day-to-day docking of various small vessels.
| Date Taken: | 05.24.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 05.24.2022 08:16 |
| Story ID: | 421357 |
| Location: | PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 95 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Our Yard History: Wet Slip #1, by Marcus Robbins, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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