Brooklyn Navy Yard Tour

This bicycle tour led by Turnstile Tours will explore the rich history and modern industry of the Brooklyn Navy Yard through multi-sensory engagement and storytelling. For 165 years, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was a leading naval shipyard, building some of America’s most famous fighting Naval ships, including the USS Maine, USS Arizona, and USS Missouri. Today the Yard is a city-owned industrial park and a center of manufacturing, technology, and craft, home to over 400 industrial and creative businesses. This guided bicycle tour offers an overview of the vast 300-acre property and its history, from its founding in 1801, through major political and technological eras – including the Civil War, World War II, and its transition to a civilian industrial park – that are still part of the Yard’s historic landscape today. We will visit the harbor's largest ship repair facility, the site of an oyster restoration project, and a soon-to-open food manufacturing hub, and exhibitions dedicated to the past, present, and future of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. A tactile map of the Yard will be used to orient visitors to the site and we will explore several objects through touch, including a three-dimensional model of a dry dock, a 1960's swimmer delivery vehicle for Navy SEALs, and examples of other three-dimensional prototypes and innovations of the Yard. While interpreting the landscape through touch, taste, and smell, we will listen to audio clips from oral histories recorded with former defense workers and veterans and share stories of entrepreneurs who work at the Yard today to bring this place to life.