The Boston Navy Yard, originally Charlestown Navy Yard and after 1945 Boston Naval Shipyard, was one of the oldest shipbuilding facilities of the United States Navy. It was officially closed 1 July 1974 and transferred to the National Park Service, enough of the yard remaining in operation to support the USS Constitution.

The earliest naval shipbuilding activities in Charlestown, Massachusetts began during the American Revolutionary War. The land for the Charlestown Navy Yard was purchased in 1801 and the yard itself established shortly thereafter. The yard built the first US ship of the line, the USS Independence, but was primarily a repair and storage facility until the 1890s, when it started to build steel ships for the "New Navy".

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External links

• Boston National Historical Park (http://www.nps.gov/bost/bost_lographics/cnyintro.htm)