Building Brooklyn: Women on the Waterfront

At the start of World War II, 200 women were employed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. That number ballooned to 7,000 at the height of the war, but afterward—women workers were gone as rapidly as they appeared. We tell the story of this unique moment in history, using oral histories from women who worked at the yard during the war, and an interview with author Jennifer Egan, who helped create the collection and used it as research for her award-winning novel, Manhattan Beach. Read our transcript a...