Norfolk Naval Shipyard

In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt launched the Great White Fleet from Norfolk Naval Shipyard as it began its journey around the world. Norfolk Naval Shipyard built the first flight deck on a ship, the USS Birmingham (CS-2). When Eugene B. Ely took off from the deck of the Birmingham on November 14, 1910, his intended destination was the Marine Barracks parade ground at Norfolk Naval Shipyard; however, he touched down instead on Willoughby Spit. The first aircraft carrier in the Navy's history, the USS Langley, was also converted there between 1919 and 1922 from the electrically powered collier Jupiter.

Portsmouth, Virginia · United States