8. Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Importance in WWII

For nearly two centuries, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was the center of American naval shipbuilding. During the Civil War, it employed 6,000 men, and by the “Acme Years of World War II,” it operated around the clock, powered by a workforce of 70,000 tireless laborers. The work was so vital to the war effort that the pedestrian crossings of the Williamsburg and Manhattan Bridges, which provided clear aerial views of the navy yard, had to be covered in order to prevent espionage.