StarDestroyer.Net BBS

The USS Barry at the Washington Navy Yard is to be removed before October 2-15 and recycled

Well this is a bummer. USS Barry was awesome. On Monday JD Land shared the sad news:

“The Navy is announcing today that it has decided to remove the (former) USS Barry from its longtime home along the banks of the Anacostia River at the Washington Navy Yard.”

Announcement about the USS Barry from the Navy below:

USS Barry Removal Letter (PDF)

It will be removed before October – get a glimpse while you still can next time you’re at Yards Park.

If you're in the DC area and haven't visited her, now's the time.

Sad news. I've never been aboard, but I like to go kayaking on the Anacostia, and she's one of my favorite landmarks (er- watermarks?) out there.

Would it be possible for another party to purchase Barry and have it relocated somewhere else?

Shinn Langley Soryu wrote:Would it be possible for another party to purchase Barry and have it relocated somewhere else?

It'll need to be someone with deep pockets — even a not-so-large warship like that needs expensive maintenance at least now and then, even if she isn't on active service.

Possible, yes.

Going to happen, no. The ship needs a drydocking, and that's a massive up-front cost for anybody who would want her, added to transportation, starting a museum, and all the rest, even if we handwave the Navy's growing dislike of donating warships to people who turn out to not have the money to maintain them properly.

Not sure how true it is, but I'd heard another issue is that the USN is in a bit of a "now or never" situation with USS Barry, as there may be a new or replacement bridge going up that won't be tall enough for her to sail under intact, nor have a sufficient drawbridge section (I THINK it may have been the 14th street or Anacostia bridges, but I admit this is 2nd hand. Anybody who actually lives in DC know?). That would make it hard in the future to move her for any future refits or the like.

Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge. The new one will not have a swing span as the old navy yard is long closed. She would in fact be trapped there if not moved before it goes in.