On May 30, 1918, President Woodrow Wilson drove the first rivet into the keel of the first ship under construction at the Virginia Shipbuilding Corporation yard at Jones Point. That ship, the Gunston Hall, was launched the following February with a second ship, the Betsy Bell. Decades later, the Wilson bridge spanning the Potomac River, connecting Maryland with Alexandria, was unveiled at almost the exact location where Wilson drove the rivet. (Source: Office of Historic Alexandria)
