The Chesapeake Bay : History Happened Here
The Navy Sees the World
On the morning of December 16, 1907, President Teddy Roosevelt sent the "Great White Fleet" around the world to demonstrate American technology and resolve. Sixteen battleships passed by this point en route to Trinidad and points south, returning to American waters in 1909. The squadrons were manned by 14,000 sailors. They covered some 43,000 miles and made twenty port calls on six continents.
Modern electrical and propulsion systems required shore facilities for training. When the U.S. entered World War I, the Navy established a large training base in Norfolk, including a submarine base and an air station. The Army and Navy conducted tests of air power in the Bay during the 1920s.
USS Alabama (Battleship #8) shows the effect of a phosphorus bomb while serving as a target in the Bay, September 27, 1921.
In the foreground is a Navy F5L seaplane. Wrecks in the distance are other old battleships used as targets.
USS Connecticut (Battleship #18) leads the Atlantic Fleet out of Hampton Roads in December, 1907.
Marker is on Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel (U.S. 13), on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
