Under your feet is the flight deck of the USS Intrepid, an Essex-class aircraft carrier that survived more damage than almost any other ship in the Pacific War and went on to recover two space capsules from the ocean. The Intrepid was commissioned in 1943 and hit by five kamikaze attacks and one torpedo during World War II, earning the nickname the Fighting I. She recovered the Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter and the Gemini 3 capsule from the Atlantic. Decommissioned in 1974, she was saved from the scrapyard by a campaign led by developer Zachary Fisher and opened as a museum in 1982.
On the flight deck you can walk among aircraft from several eras of military aviation, and moored alongside is the USS Growler, a guided-missile submarine you can walk through. The museum also houses a Space Shuttle Enterprise, the prototype orbiter used for atmospheric test flights. Stand on the flight deck and look south toward the harbor; from this angle you can see the Statue of Liberty and understand why every captain who guarded this approach felt the weight of what lay behind them.