Patriot Point Naval and Maritime Museum

Sitting just aross the river from downtown Charleston, South Carolina is the USS Yorktown. The Yorktown was the tenth aircraft carrier to serve in the U. S. Navy.

Charleston maintains the Patriot's Point Maritime Museum which opened in the summer of 1975 when the legendary aircraft carrier USS Yorktown appeared in Charleston Harbor. The USS Yorktown was dedicated as the first ship at the Naval & Maritime Museum on the 200th birthday of the United States Navy. Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum was officially opened to the public on January 3, 1976.

Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum is one of the largest museums of its kind in the world with the addition of other Historic Landmark ships like the destroyer USS Laffey, known as “The Ship That Would Not Die”, the Balao class submarine Clamagore and the Treasury class Coast Guard cutter Ingham (the Ingham would later move to the Miami Dade Historical Maritime Museum in 2009).

War planes used during many different wars and conflicts spanning from WWII to Desert Storm are displayed in the Yorktown's 40,000 square foot hangar bay and atop the 888-foot flight deck. Patriots Point is also the base of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society and their official Medal of Honor Museum with tons of interactive exhibits.

Located on the land is the only replica of a Vietnam Support Base in the country as well as a Cold War Submarine Memorial paying tribute to the sacrifices and triumphs made by the men and women during the Cold War.