Hampton Roads
Beginning in 1917, as the United States became involved in World War I under President Woodrow Wilson, formerly rural Sewell's Point became the site of what grew to become the largest Naval Base in the world which was established by the United States Navy and is now known as the Naval Station Norfolk.
Devonport Naval Base
One of the more famous elements of the base is the Calliope Dock, a drydock built in 1888 and still in use. At that time, it was the largest in the Southern Hemisphere, and a strategic asset for the Royal Navy. It was named for Calliope Point, out of which it had been hewn by hand over three years. Coincidentally, one of the two first ships to enter it (as a show of her capacity) was . Administered at first by the Auckland Harbour Board, the dock was transferred to the navy when the Auckland naval base moved from Torpedo Bay to Devonport, into a swamp area next to the dock.