Those of you who live in OC are already familiar with this...
This is a building about 10 stories tall, on the property of the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. It's bigger than it looks in this photo, as it's probably a hundred yards or so behind the fence in the forground and now appears to be surrounded by naval personnel RV storage. When I was a kid, my dad worked for Rockwell International across the street, and this and several other gargantuan corrugated iron buildings nearby helped with part of the Apollo space program in the 60's/early 70's (although I can't remember now what purpose they served) for which Rockwell was a contractor. I remember going on a tour or two there when I was in grade school, when they had Open House events. Those are actually sliding doors on the front of that thing, although they haven't opened in decades and my father thinks they must have rusted shut by now.
And now Rockwell has nothing to do with space - sort of sad.
Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station
Seal Beach CA
Sharp VE-CG30
04 April 2008
4/22/08 - Edit : Shortly after posting this I received this email -
Hi Senoritafish. Google News sent me a link to yesterday's blog entry about the weapons station. FYI, the building in the picture was used to construct the second stage of the Saturn V moon rocket. Those huge doors actually still work, and we very occasionally "exercise them" to make sure that they do. Never know when they might come in handy! Normally though, the doors on this building stay shut. Cheers!
Public Affairs Officer
Seal Beach Weapons Station