USS New York Ships Out

This ship has sailed.
    
The USS New York has left its namesake city after finishing up its inaugural visit.
    
The Navy ship was built in Louisiana with steel from the rubble of the World Trade Center. It arrived in the city last week, and was officially commissioned over the weekend.
    
The 7 1/2 tons of steel debris from ground zero had been melted down to form the bow of the USS New York as "a symbol of our unshakable resolve; this is a city built of steel,'' said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, representing the Obama administration.

Lt. Commander Suzanna Brugler said the ship left at 7 a.m. Thursday. It headed to a Naval weapons station in New Jersey. The plan was to wait out some severe weather further down the Atlantic seaboard before continuing.

The USS New York's new skipper, Cmdr. Curtis Jones, is a native New Yorker.

The $1 billion vessel was built near New Orleans by workers who survived Hurricane Katrina.
    
"They had to rebuild their lives and their homes at the same time as they built the ship,'' said Irwin F. Edenzon, general manager for Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding-Gulf Coast, which built the USS New York.
 

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