It's Fleet Week in NYC, but the city's hometown aircraft carrier Intrepid is having trouble finding its way home. The Intrepid is still in the harbor--docked at a shipyard in Staten Island as it undergoes renovations--but it's uncertain if the fabled craft will be able to make it back to its berth on Manhattan's West Side.
The total cost of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum's overhaul has almost doubled since the carrier was pulled from the muck it had settled into in 2006. That dredging project to free the ship may have been an ominous bellwether for the challenges the museum would face. Millions of dollars of additional funding are needed--more than half to recreate the City-owned pier where the Intrepid docks.
The Intrepid was an integral part of the Pacific theater of battle during WWII, surviving several kamikaze attacks. Nonetheless, it was going to be scrapped before it was brought to NYC to serve as a museum. Over the next 30 years, the carrier became one of the most popular tourist attractions in New York, and one of its waterfront's most recognizable landmarks. Donations to help fund the museum can be made here.
