Friday Photo: Fort Greene History Edition

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Employees-Women-First-Day-12 Before electronic surveillance gates, these "Rosie the Riveters" -- first-ever women to work at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II -- had to open their handbags for security reasons. Assuredly the guards found nothing more sinister or explosive than a mirror, lipstick, sanitary pads and bobby pins.  In all, the Navy Yard workers jumped from 10,000 in 1938 to some 70,000 by war's end. (Courtesy National Archives, the Brookyln Navy Yard.  From "Fort Greene" by Howard Pitsch, Foreword by Paul Palazzo, Arcadia Publishing, 2010, $22.  Available online: HistoricFortGreene.org)