Exploring the SS United States: From Luxury Liner to Artificial Reef - Final Inside Tour

Exploring the SS United States: From Luxury Liner to Artificial Reef - Final Inside Tour

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The SS United States is one of my most favorite explores I took part in. This massive decaying Ocean Liner will soon be sent to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Built by famous naval architect, William Gibbs, the SS United States, also known as the Big U, first maidan voyage was in 1952. It last until 1969 when airline travel became a better option, faster, and cheaper. It went through some owners in hopes to turn it into cruise ship of some sort, but nothing happened. In the late 80s, everything was auctioned off. In 1993, it went to Ukraine to have all the Asbestos removed. It then came back and ended up in Philadelphia Pennsylvania in 1996. The port it was put in was a temporary spot, but it ended up remaining there for over 30 years. The conservancy took title of her in 2011, and they spent a lot of time trying to find someone to turn it into an attraction. Crystal Cruise lines was interested and paid over a million dollars to do a study, but they backed out after they were told it needed to be inspected every year. They backed out a then a developer was interested to make it an attraction in New York, but those plans didn't seem to pan out as well. They were paying the port 60,000 a month in rent. When the port raised the rent recently, they choose to not pay the new amount and continued to pay the 60k. The port took them to court and although the conservancy wasn't forced to pay the back rent, they were told they had 3 months to get the 990ft ocean liner out of its port. The group tried hard to find a new location, but its options came down to, scrap her, or take Okaloosa County deal and have it sunk as the world's largest artificial reef. They took that option. It will leave Philly end of October 2024, head to Norfolk Virginia to be prepped and have items removed for the planned land museum. After that, it will head to Florida and be sunk off the cost. It will be a new home for marine life and also gives scuba divers an option to explore. This footage is all from 2015 and 2016 so I compiled it into a nice long video. She been in a state of decay for a long time but as sad as some are to see her go, her new home is still better than the scrap yard.

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