A Cool Old Military Film Showing the Naval Gun Factory

(Image: Screenshot from old military film)

In this old military film from the 1950s, we see the naval gun factory in Washington, D.C. which was at the time “the largest Naval armament in the world.”

The 14-minute movie was made by the United States Navy to show off the naval gun factory, and it’s pretty cool. The factory itself takes up 125 acres with 200 buildings, containing everything from offices to forges, and both heavy and light machine shops.

Founded in 1799 to outfit a navy for the young USA, the place has also served as an arsenal, a school for midshipmen, and a naval base.

Being government-run, we see that much bureaucracy (and a whole lot of necessary design work) must be waded through before actual production commences.

My favorite place shown in this old military film would have to be the Heavy Gun Shop. After all, I’ve been enjoying gun shops pretty much all my life! That place looks really interesting to me.

I would rather see more gun building content in the video, but you can’t have everything… and it’s all pretty interesting. This shows us something most Americans never think about — and they do a lot more than just build naval guns.

Enjoy the video.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.