The Washington Navy Yard—the oldest shore installation in
the service and, for years, one of the most neglected—is being
cleaned up in an effort to repair its image as a national showpiece.
Nearly two centuries of industrial pollution are being removed,
19th century factory buildings are being converted to high-tech
office space for thousands of sailors and contractors, historic
admirals’ residences and museums are being renovated, and
parking lots are being turned into landscaped parks. The number
of sailors and civilian employees assigned to the yard has doubled
just in the past few years.
As a result of all the changes, the yard is becoming “the
Navy’s flagship in the nation’s capital,” said
Rear Adm. (S) Christopher E. Weaver, commandant of the Naval District
Washington (NDW), which runs the facility. “Over the past
three or four years, there really has been a reevaluation of the
yard.
“It’s always been the ceremonial home of the Navy,”
Weaver told National Defense. “The first inklings of a Navy
we could call our own began here. But recently, there’s been
a growing realization that we could be a fulcrum—a point against
which a lever is placed to get purchase—for change along Washington’s
waterfront and within the Navy itself.”
Located at the foot of Capitol Hill on the Anacostia River in Washington,
D.C., the yard was founded in 1799 as the Navy’s first shipbuilding
installation. It built gunboats to fight the pirates of Tripoli
in North Africa.
The Anacostia, however, quickly proved to be too shallow for major
warships, and the yard became a manufacturing center, producing
nautical equipment such as anchors, chain cables, steam engines
and eventually naval guns.
In the mid-1800s, the yard’s commandant, Rear Adm. John Dahlgren,
developed the famous 9- and 11-inch Dahlgren guns, which were widely
used during the Civil War. In 1884, the yard was chosen as the site
for the U.S. Naval Gun Factory. During World War I, the factory
built 16-inch guns and railroad guns. Weapons production continued
there through World War II. In 1962, however, production at the
yard ceased, and about half of the 120-acre site was transferred
to the General Services Administration (GSA) as excess property.
Since then, the Washington Navy Yard has served as an administrative,
supply and ceremonial center. Over the decades, countless presidents,
admirals, generals and world leaders have passed through its main
gate, which designed by architect Benjamin Latrobe, best known for
his work on the White House and Capitol Building. Just this June,
for example, the yard was the scene for a full-honors arrival ceremony
for Vice Adm. George Theodoroulakis, chief of the Greek Navy’s
general staff. Currently, the yard is the headquarters for:
In 1977, when the chief of naval operations (CNO) residence at
the Naval Observatory was turned over to the vice president, the
CNO moved to Quarters A, a neoclassical brick house at the yard.
For decades, the Navy has wanted to convert the yard’s vast,
underutilized and deteriorating factory buildings into more useful
space, according to John Imparator, NDW director of corporate information.
In 1995, the Defense Base Closure and Realignment (BRAC) Commission
recommended moving the headquarters of the Navy Sea (NavSea) Systems
Command and its 4,100 employees, from leased space across the Potomac
River, in Crystal City, Va., to the yard. With a budget of about
$20 billion—about a fifth of the Navy’s total—NavSea
manages more than 130 acquisition programs.
From Factories to Offices
Congress quickly approved spending $200 million to convert the facility’s
factory buildings into office space. Plans called for renovation
of three historic buildings, demolition of five others and construction
of two new structures, including a five-level parking garage.
The plans, however, quickly ran into stormy weather. Environmental
studies revealed a number of contaminated waste sites that dated
back to the yard’s industrial days. A variety of wastes with
hazardous characteristics were found, including polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs), mercury, lead, mineral spirits, paint, batteries,
spilled fuel, adhesives and acids.
In 1997, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)—citing
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act—ordered the Navy
to begin cleaning up the contamination. Work was to begin immediately
to prevent hazardous materials from leaching into the Anacostia,
which flows past the yard, through the city, into the Potomac and
on to the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
In 1998, the Navy agreed to pay a $69,000 penalty for violating
EPA’s hazardous waste-management regulations and to improve
its personnel-training, storage and record-keeping procedures. That
same year, EPA listed the Washington Navy Yard on its National Priorities
List, a compilation of the country’s most serious hazardous-waste
sites. The list was established by the Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), more commonly
known as “Superfund.”
Under the rules of RCRA and CERCLA, representatives from the Navy,
EPA and the District of Columbia (DC)—the local government
for the nation’s capital—have been meeting regularly
to plan cleanup activities at the yard. At one site, a 12- by 12-foot
area of soil was excavated to a depth of 6 feet to remove mercury.
Underground petroleum-storage tanks—no longer in use—were
excavated and removed. Others were emptied, cleaned and filled with
cement.
Along “Admiral’s Row,” a group of 21 residences
assigned to flag-rank officers, lead-based paint has been removed
and the grounds landscaped to minimize the chances of exposure.
The Navy Museum reopened its main exhibition space in June following
an 18-month effort to upgrade the century-old building’s electrical,
fire and safety systems. The 600-foot-long museum, which has exhibits
dating back to the Revolutionary War, is housed in what used to
be the gun factory’s breech mechanism shop. It draws about
400,000 visitors per year.
Storm Sewers
A high priority was placed upon renovating the yard’s storm
sewers, which collect rainwater and melting snows that wash across
paved surfaces and deliver them eventually to the Anacostia, Imparato
said. All of the facility’s sewer lines—a total of 20,000
feet—were inspected by video camera to locate damage and to
decide which sewers should be repaired first. The lines then were
cleaned to remove contaminated sediment.
To help keep contaminants out of the storm sewers, the Navy is
increasing the amount of greenery at the yard, Imparato explained.
Until recently, little emphasis was placed upon landscaping the
basically industrial setting. The yard had two small parks—Leutze
Park, the parade ground for official changes of command, welcoming
of foreign dignitaries and retirement ceremonies, and Willard Park,
between the Navy Museum and the Anacostia.
Now, a parking lot has been removed to expand Willard Park. The
expansion provides a sweeping view of the Anacostia flowing under
the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge and into the Potomac. Examples
of the kinds of naval ordnance once built at the yard are displayed.
Environmental Standards
More importantly, from an environmental standpoint, Imparato explained,
the plants in the expanded landscaping will absorb many of the contaminants
picked up by the rainwater and melting snow as it flows off buildings
and paved areas in the yard, preventing them from seeping into the
river.
For the same reason, the Navy is installing bio-retention cells—narrow
strips of plantings—between rows of cars in parking lots,
Imparato said. “It’s a relatively low-cost, low-maintenance
program,” he told National Defense.
“There’s a little lady on Capitol Hill who thinks we
should only use native species. But our biologists say other plants
may last longer and do a better job.”
The cleanup is nearly complete, Imparato said. Meanwhile, NavSea
has moved into its new quarters, with the last units scheduled to
arrive in July. NavSea occupies a five-building campus in the heart
of the yard. Sturdy brick structures used a century ago to make
naval guns now house state-of-the-art meeting, conference and communications
facilities.
The largest of these—Building 197—was an assembly plant
for all of the 16-inch guns used on World War II battleships. At
the center of Building 197, in a glass-roofed atrium, is a 500-ton
crane used to move the mammoth guns.
“We preserved the crane as an artifact to remind us of the
history of this place,” Imparato said. Where possible, the
designers retained—or duplicated—the original, factory-style
windows. The buildings’ design also incorporates exposed steel
girders from the facility’s industrial days.
“We could have covered them up,” Imparato said. “But
what would be the point? We thought they were kind of handsome.”
During the renovation of the NavSea site, the Navy required an
archaeologist to monitor the work to protect any significant historic
artifacts uncovered in the construction process.
Few buildings have survived from the yard’s earliest days,
Charles LeeDecker, an archaeologist with the Louis Berger Group
told an environmental conference, sponsored by the National Defense
Industrial Association earlier this year in Austin, Texas. Thus,
he said, “archaeological remains from these periods are considered
very important.”
Initially, LeeDecker said, Navy officials were very worried. “It
was like, ‘Oh, my God,’” he said. “‘What
happens if you find something important? Are you going to make me
stop work?’ I wish I had that kind of authority, but I don’t.”
Instead, he said, he was given a limited amount of time for discovery
before construction began, and that was it. Still, he said, that
was sufficient to uncover and document long-forgotten remains of
structures built between 1825 and the mid-1860s. The impact of the
archaeological work on the NavSea construction schedule was negligible,
he said.
With NavSea’s arrival, space at the yard is filled pretty
much to capacity for the first time in decades, Imparato said. Since
1995, he said, the number of sailors and civilian employees assigned
to the installation has doubled to 10,800. “We could maybe
squeeze 50 or 60 more people if we had to. But that’s about
it.”
Despite the care taken with the construction of their new quarters,
some NavSea employees are not impressed. The yard, they said, lacks
the lavish shopping and restaurant amenities of NavSea’s previous
home, Crystal City.
The new complex includes a cafeteria, but other than that, the
yard offers only a handful of fast-food places to eat. The main
on-base shopping is the Navy Exchange, which is small and open solely
to uniformed military personnel. The Navy and Marine museums have
small gift shops. The streets outside the yard, for the moment,
are almost empty of retail facilities.
Some relief, however, is on the way. A small “town center”—including
more fast-food restaurants, convenience stores, a bank branch and
a dry cleaner—is scheduled to open in December.
Transportation is another sore point. At Crystal City, NavSea employees
had access to a labyrinth of parking garages, the Metro subway system
and a commuter railway.
At the yard, even with NavSea’s new parking garage, there
is only one parking space for every three employees. Drivers without
valid parking permits were warned this summer that their cars would
be ticketed. There is a Navy Yard Metro station, but it is located
several blocks away from the nearest entrance to the yard. At the
moment, those blocks are occupied primarily by boarded-up buildings,
public housing and liquor stores.
To make it easier for yard employees to get to their jobs, the
Navy and Metro earlier this year began running a shuttle bus in
a loop from the subway through the facility and back.
In addition, Imparato explained, the federal government offers
a $65 per month subsidy to encourage its workers to use mass transit.
As for the urban blight around the yard, it eventually may become
a thing of the past, officials said. NavSea’s arrival is attracting
a massive influx of contractors who used to do business with the
command in Crystal City and want to remain close to their contacts.
All along M Street SE—just outside the yard—new office
buildings are popping up. Three are in various stages of completion.
In all, Imparato said, 15 buildings are planned, with a total of
1.5 million square feet and a capacity of 5,000 workers.
At Lincoln Properties’ Maritime Plaza, for example, the first
of five planned buildings is nearly ready for occupancy in October.
This five-story, 200,000 square foot building is fully leased, according
to Greg Masters, vice president of construction. The tenants will
include Newport News Shipbuilding, Computer Sciences Corporation
and Electric Boat, “all the usual suspects,” he said.
Housing for Marines
Just outside the yard, the Marine Corps plans to construct new bachelor
enlisted quarters (BEQ) for 332 enlisted personnel assigned to the
historic Marine Barracks on nearby Capitol Hill. The new quarters,
to be built on a former public-housing site, are intended to relieve
overcrowding at the existing BEQ at the barracks. Currently, on-base
housing at the barracks is in such short supply that many unmarried
Marines, still in their teens, are forced to rent apartments—and
furnish them—in one of the most expensive housing markets
in the nation.
Ground is scheduled to be broken for the project in April of next
year, according to Capt. Fred Catchpole, a Marine public affairs
officer. The facility will cost an estimated $26.5 million, “but
that number is in flux,” he said. The quarters will include
parking for 273 cars, practice space for the Marine Band—which
is based at the barracks—and athletic fields for football,
softball and soccer. The Marines plan to share the fields with neighborhood
groups, Catchpole said.
This spring, several hundred Marines—armed with rakes and
plastic trash bags—marched from the barracks to the new building
site to perform what they call “a battalion-wide police call.”
They picked up every scrap of paper on the site. The trash, Marines
said, was giving the corps a bad image, even though construction
was still months away.
The Marine BEQ site—-and indeed the whole Navy Yard area—is
still surrounded by deep poverty, but officials expressed faith
that all of the construction taking place will eventually make the
community more vibrant.
To help move things along, a coalition including the Navy, GSA,
D.C. government, U.S. Transportation Department and National Capital
Planning Commission in 1999 launched a $7.7 million project to improve
the landscaping along M Street, just outside the yard. The effort
included street construction, sidewalk and curb repairs, tree plantings,
street furniture and additional lighting. “This will spur
the rebirth of M Street as an important commercial artery within
the District,” said Mayor Anthony Williams. A similar project
is planned for 8th Street SE, which connects the yard to Capitol
Hill.
A longtime goal of the federal, D.C. and Maryland governments is
to make the Anacostia River clean enough to fish and swim along
its shores. While the Navy has done much to clean up the shoreline
within the yard, D.C.’s sewer system—used by all federal
offices in the city—remains a major roadblock to this goal,
Williams told a recent congressional hearing.
“During an average year, it is estimated that the combined
sewer system discharges over 2.5 billion gallons of untreated wastewater
and precipitation into Rock Creek, the Anacostia River and the Potomac
River,” Williams said. The Anacostia, he added, bears “the
brunt of the overflows.”
Stopping the discharges will cost “in the range of $1 billion
to $2 billion over the next decade,” Williams estimated. This
cost, he said, should be shared. “Our residents and businesses,
members of Congress and their staffs, the President of the United
States and employees of federal agencies and millions of visitors
to our nation’s capital, literally and figuratively, contribute
to this environmental problem.” For this reason, Williams
argued, “It is appropriate that the federal government play
a major role in the cleanup effort.”
The Navy will continue to play its role, Weaver told National Defense.
To make sure of that, Weaver said, the CNO has asked him to remain
as NDW commandant even though he has been selected for promotion
and he has been in the job for 40 months.
The yard, meanwhile, maintains its connection with the river and
the seas beyond. The river is too shallow for ships with drafts
deeper than 14 feet, Weaver explained. But shallow-draft ships frequently
visit. In June, for example, the British research vessel RV Triton—a
90-meter, motor-powered trimaran—paid a port call.
Also this summer, the Navy Museum and the nearby Alexandria Seaport
Foundation began a cooperative project for volunteers to build a
full-size replica of a 26-foot Navy motor whaleboat. For more than
a century, whaleboats were used most commonly for transporting sailors
from ship to shore.
Once completed, the boat will remain on the Anacostia, to be used
by local preservation and conservation groups.