Foggy Bottom Master Naval Observatory and the Navy Medical Department

A history of the first US Naval Observatory and BUMED's Potomac Annex. Scripted and produced by Jan Herman.

A HILLTOP IN FOGGY BOTTOM: home of the old Naval Observatory and the Navy Medical Department, where many firsts in science and technology took place. This is where the science of oceanography was born, where the moons of Mars were discovered, where the underwater path of the first transatlantic cable was plotted. This location played a key role in the Civil War, our westward expansion, and in the development of military medicine. In 1920, the Naval Observatory was renamed the Naval Medical School, and later became home to the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, until it was closed through the Department of Defense's Base Realignment and Closure.