USS George Washington Parke Custis (1861)
USS George Washington Parke Curtis was a barge acquired by the Union Navy during the American Civil War for the purpose of using her as a balloon-launching platform in order to spy on Confederate defenses a long distance off.
This initial balloon experiment by John A. Dahlgren led to intensified balloon spying during the remainder of the war.
Read more about USS George Washington Parke Custis (1861): Conversion To Balloon Barge By John A. Dahlgren, Final Decommissioning
Famous quotes containing the words george and/or washington:
“Speak not of my debts unless you mean to pay them.”
—17th century English proverb, collected in George Herbert, Outlandish Proverbs (1640)
“The city of Washington is in some respects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the rest of the United States is thinking about. I count it a fortunate circumstance that almost all the windows of the White House and its offices open upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to the banks of the Potomac ... and that as I sit there I can constantly forget Washington and remember the United States.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)