USS Shenandoah Map Tour - Map Slide 1

October 17, 1924 — The USS Shenandoah arrives at Fort Lewis in Tacoma Washington, marking the first successful crossing of North America by a rigid airship.

Before they could celebrate, the crew met one last challenge upon arrival: Tacoma was blanketed in fog making visibility difficult. Moffet wrote:

"We were approaching Camp Lewis and felt the satisfaction of nearing our journey’s end. We hoped to reach Camp Lewis so as to come down before the helium received super-heat from the sun’s rays to avoid valving helium. To our regret we found Camp Lewis and its neighborhood blanketed with fog. We were up 3,000 feet and had no difficulty in locating ourselves due to the visibility of many landmarks showing above the fog. However, the sun rose. The ship took on super-heat, expanding the helium, and rather than valve helium we cedied [sic] to remain in the air until the evening, and with the loss of super-heating bring the ship down and at least save some helium. 

After sundown, Captain Lansdowne brought the airship down with great skill, passing over trees within a few hundred feet, gradually lower and lower, until the altitude was only 300 feet approaching the mast. The nose line was dropped, connected up with great skill, and soon the ship was being hauled down."