At the Washington Navy Yard we will be able to explore both The National Museum of The US Navy and the Cold War Museum.   Admiral Arleigh Burke established the current museum, Building 76, in 1963 to create an American naval history museum comparable to those in Europe.  Permanent and temporary exhibitions commemorate the Navy's wartime heroes and battles as well as its peacetime contributions in exploration, diplomacy, space flight, navigation and humanitarian service.  Today The U.S. Navy Museum is the only naval museum to chronicle the history of the U.S. Navy from its creation to the present.  Artifacts like USS Constitution's fighting top, the world's deepest diving submersible, Trieste, and the khaki uniform of former Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz make The Navy Museum's collection second to none.

There are many permanent exhibits including:

• Dive! Dive! U.S. Navy Submarines This large room is dedicated entirely to the history of American submarines. The room features a pair of working periscopes, targeting computers, and battle flags.


• The National Museum of the U.S. Navy's Cold War Gallery is located in Building 70.  The gallery exhibits the U.S. Navy's history from the Korean War, through the Vietnam War, and the Cold War era, focusing on covert submarine operations, nuclear submarine equipment, and models of period aircraft.


• The Forgotten Wars of the Nineteenth Century This exhibit features artifacts from the Quasi-War with France, the First Barbary War and the Second Barbary War, the War of 1812, and the Mexican–American War. The centerpiece of this exhibit is a replica of USS Constitution gun deck.


• Civil War The Civil War exhibit shows the sorts of warships and equipment used by sailors of the Union and Confederate fleets. Models of the legendary ironclads USS Monitor and CSS Virginia, the commerce raider CSS Alabama, and the USS Kearsarge (1861) are on display.


• Spanish–American War This exhibit tells the story of the loss of the battleship USS Maine (ACR-1), public outrage and the beginning of the United States as a global power. On display are a number of weapons, items from the home front, a model and diagram of the strange USS Vesuvius (1888), and the uniform of Admiral George Dewey.


• U.S. Navy in World War I This exhibit detailing the U.S. Navy's brief involvement in the First World War explains the dangerous task of submarine-hunting and showcases models of warships of the period, a captured German flag and footage of a U.S. Navy railway gun in action.


• In Harm's Way, The Navy in World War II The largest section of the museum, In Harm's Way is divided into three sections.
  
  
  1. The Atlantic Theater:  This exhibit details convoy protection, the capture of U-505, the breaking of the German Enigma code, and the role of the Merchant Marine, as well as weapons and equipment used by both sides of the war for Europe.  A wide variety of cannon, rifles and sidearms are on display along with a high-altitude flying suit, the diving log of U-505 and the XAF Radar Receiver from the battleship USS New York (BB-34).
  2. The Home Front:  Featuring a replica storefront and a small theater showing film from the World War II period, the home front exhibit is decorated with patriotic posters, aircraft-identification models, and personal items.  The role of WAVES is detailed in the exhibit.
  3. The Pacific Theater:  The area dedicated to the war in the Pacific dominates the World War II section of the museum, featuring a full-size replica of the bridge of the destroyer USS Fletcher, four gun batteries, an FG-1D Corsair, a Japanese MXY7 Ohka kamikaze aircraft, two atomic bomb casings, and models of the carrier USS Leyte (CV-32) and battleship USS Missouri (BB-63), each around twenty feet in length.
  
  
• Korea 1950–53:  The Navy in the Forgotten War Uniforms and equipment, along with videos and other artifacts, bring the often-ignored Korean War into focus.  Captured Soviet weapons, models of aircraft and warships and even a chunk of the Inchon seawall are on display.