THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 14, 1996 TAG: 9604110028
SECTION: REAL LIFE PAGE: K2 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: OBSCURE TOUR
LOCAL LANDMARKS THE TOUR BOOKS NEVER MENTION
SOURCE: BY EARL SWIFT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Short : 37 lines
THE TALLEST OFFICE in Newport News boasts views of the entire city, of the James River, of downtown Norfolk. You can even see the York River, clear across the Peninsula.
And if you don't care for the vista, you can change it: This office moves.
From a room 23 stories off the ground, folks at Newport News Shipbuilding control a mammoth, light-blue crane that is the largest in the Western world.
Two hundred thirty-four feet tall, the crane straddles the hemisphere's largest dry dock in the company's North Yard, off Huntington Avenue southeast of the James River Bridge.
In the 22 years since its installation, the machine has proved vital to the shipyard's ability to build ships in pieces, or ``subassemblies.'' As each is completed, the crane lifts it from the riverbank, swings it over the dry dock and lowers it into place.
One person can operate it, after riding an elevator that rises up one of the crane's legs.
You're not likely to take that ride yourself: The German-built crane is off-limits to outsiders.
But you don't need to get close to see it. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
FILE
The crane straddle's the hemisphere's largest dry dock.
by CNB