The navy is cool, but the museum sure isn't

[the_tyrant]

So i just came back from the Navy museum in Washington DC

My impression, it sucks
The navy museum is buried deep within the navy yard. No signs or anything to mark its location.
You cannot go into the navy yard without a pass. And the visitor center is located in an odd location, again, no sign to mark its place.
It seems like the navy museum does not want visitors.

The museum itself is ok, but it lacks guided tours and the gift shop wasn't open.
The actual items on display is interesting, but only for someone interested in naval history and naval culture. The contents of the museum mainly consists of model ships in glass boxes.

When you walk into the National Air and Space Museum(the one near the airport), they have a SR71 right in front of the door. In comparison, when you walk into the navy museum you see parts of the USS Constitution.

While the National Air and Space Museum has the new "high tech" stuff, for example they have a x35. The navy museum is filled with old, ancient stuff. Most of the space is filled with stuff from before the Korean war.

It gives the average tourist the impression that the navy has no future, that the navy is dieing.

I expected to see models and pictures of aircraft carriers, and ballistic missile submarines. Instead, I see ships of the line, ironclads, pre dreadnoughts, and battleships.

Also, when you walk in, there is a sign in book. There was only 6 visitors(including my family) the whole day. Admittingly, today is a Monday. But there was at least 100 people at any time in the National Air and Space Museum this morning.

The is a destroyer that you can go inside. The USS Berry. But the a destroyer from 1955 isn't really interesting. Especially when you cannot visit the interesting sections of the ship.

In my opinion, if you want to learn about the modern navy, go pick up a copy of Dangerous waters.

If you are looking for a good navy museum, visit the Australia maritime museum. Its way better, with many more ships that you can visit. Even an Oberon class submarine!