You can walk inside a real nuclear sub on Connecticut’s Thames River, no ticket required: According to reports

Shutterstock

Connecticut’s free Navy museum doesn’t disappoint

There’s a submarine sitting on the Thames River in Groton, Connecticut, and you can walk right inside it. No ticket needed. No line to buy your way through. The USS Nautilus was the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, and it sailed under the Arctic ice to reach the North Pole in 1958. The museum around it is the only one run entirely by the U.S. Navy, and between the hands-on exhibits and the real ship, you’ll want more than an afternoon. Shutterstock

The Navy’s only museum of its kind

The Submarine Force Museum sits on the bank of the Thames River, and the moment you pull in, you’ll notice that parking doesn’t cost you a thing. Neither does getting in. The U.S. Navy runs this place from the ground up, which makes it different from every other submarine museum in the country. At the center of it all is the Nautilus, docked right outside and waiting. Everything else here builds the story around that ship. Wikimedia Commons/Victor-ny

The submarine that changed how wars could be fought

Before the Nautilus, submarines ran on diesel engines and had to surface regularly to breathe. The Nautilus changed that. Nuclear power meant it could stay underwater for months at a stretch, moving through the deep without coming up for air. In August 1958, it slipped beneath the Arctic ice and became the first ship in history to reach the North Pole. The Navy retired it in 1980, and it’s been in Groton ever since. Flickr/dmuth

Walk the decks of a record-setting ship

You get to go inside. A self-guided tour takes you through the actual Nautilus, audio device in hand, narrating as you move from compartment to compartment. You’ll pass the crew’s bunks, the mess hall where sailors ate and killed time, and the control spaces where everything happened. Lifelike figures stand at their stations throughout. More than 100 men lived and worked in here. Once you step inside, the scale of that fact starts to hit you.

Shutterstock

The tight quarters that sailors called home

The passageways are narrow. That’s the first thing you’ll notice. The bunks stack close in small, low-ceilinged spaces, and the mess area, where the crew ate and gathered, is compact in a way that makes you rethink what “crowded” means. Walk through the torpedo room and you’ll see how the sub carried its weapons alongside the men who fired them. Daily life in one of these vessels wasn’t just disciplined. It was physically close in every possible direction. Flickr/dmuth

Scan the river through a real periscope

The museum building holds three working periscopes, and you can look through all of them. Spin the handles and sweep the Thames River, the docks, the grounds. It’s the same motion a submariner made, except you’re standing on solid floor instead of drifting 200 feet down. You can also sit at the salvaged helm of a real nuclear submarine and put your hands on the controls. For kids especially, this stop tends to hold them a while. Wikimedia Commons/The Island Kings

The tiny wooden sub that started it all

Long before nuclear reactors and torpedo rooms, a Connecticut man built a one-person wooden submarine and sent it into battle during the Revolutionary War. A full-size replica of Bushnell’s Turtle sits in the museum, and it’s worth stopping to look at. One person powered it by cranking a hand-driven propeller. It was the first submarine ever used in actual combat, and it looks like something you’d piece together in a barn. The fact that it worked at all is the interesting part. Shutterstock

Battle flags, mines, and the Silent Service

The artifacts stretch across the full run of submarine history, from those earliest wooden experiments to modern vessels. Battle flags hang in the collection, each one marked with the wartime record of the sub that flew it. You’ll see underwater mines up close, track how propulsion evolved from gasoline-electric engines to diesel-electric to nuclear, and read about the sailors the Navy has always called the Silent Service. Thousands of documents, photographs and objects fill the exhibits. Flickr/dmuth

Explore the outdoor displays before going in

Give yourself time outside before you head through the doors. The grounds hold pieces of submarines you can walk right up to, including the tall sails, the tower structures that rise above the hull, from well-known boats. Two large rings stand side by side to show you the difference in hull diameter between the USS Holland, one of the earliest Navy subs, and the USS Ohio, a massive ballistic missile submarine.

Read more from this brand:

One Connecticut town holds the largest collection of maritime history in the United States

This Connecticut factory lets you watch PEZ get made through a window

Two hours from New York, this Connecticut harbor lives like it’s still 1850

The post You can walk inside a real nuclear sub on Connecticut’s Thames River, no ticket required appeared first on When In Your State.

A ballistic missile also stands on display in the open air. Wikimedia Commons/Carol M. Highsmith

Midget subs and the smallest nuclear boat ever built

The outdoor section includes a collection of small submarines that served very different purposes. The smallest nuclear-powered submarine the Navy ever built is out here, along with experimental vessels and wartime midget submarines. One of those is a recovered Japanese midget submarine from World War II. These were boats built for specific, often secret missions, and the contrast between their size and what they were designed to do makes them hard to walk past without stopping. Shutterstock

A family stop that actually delivers

Kids can pick up a scavenger hunt sheet at the front desk and work through the museum with something to find at each stop. The interactive exhibits in the building give younger visitors things to do beyond reading panels. The self-guided tour of the Nautilus runs about 30 minutes at a reasonable pace. One thing worth knowing before you go: the sub’s interior is narrow and involves steps and hatches, so it isn’t wheelchair accessible. Shutterstock

What makes this place worth the detour

Free admission and free parking would be enough reason to stop, but the Nautilus tips it into something rarer. You can walk through a submarine that sailed under the North Pole. That’s not a reconstruction or a replica. That’s the actual ship, docked on a Connecticut river, open to anyone who shows up. The museum around it is well-organized and honest about its history. If you’re moving through New England and have half a day, this is the stop you won’t second-guess. Flickr/dmuth

Visit the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut

You’ll find the museum at 1 Crystal Lake Road in Groton, right on the Thames River. Admission is free, parking is free, and the tours are self-guided, so you move at your own pace. The museum and Nautilus tour together take most visitors two to three hours. Check the official website before you go for current hours, as seasonal schedules apply. The museum is closed on Tuesdays in most seasons. This article was created with AI assistance and human editing. Read more from this brand:

One Connecticut town holds the largest collection of maritime history in the United States

This Connecticut factory lets you watch PEZ get made through a window

Two hours from New York, this Connecticut harbor lives like it’s still 1850

The post You can walk inside a real nuclear sub on Connecticut’s Thames River, no ticket required appeared first on When In Your State.