The SS United States
Now consigned to mothballs, conservators are trying to rescue her from the scrap yard.
After the war, Gibbs poured everything he knew into one, ultimate ship.
The design was so revolutionary it was classified.
The ship was 990 feet long -- 100 feet longer than the Titanic -- with gross tonnage of 53,000.
The ship's steam turbines generated 245,000 horsepower.
Her return time, from England to New York, remains unbeaten to this day.
"This is the most famous ship that didn't sink," said Susan Gibbs, executive director of the SS United States Conservancy. "We all know the Titanic and this spectacular, maiden voyage catastrophe. This ship is famous for many of us, precisely because she did her job."
Left: The SS United States slips under the Walt Whitman bridge in Gloucester City, N.J., as it heads up the Delaware River to Philadelphia's Pier 96 on Thursday, August 15, 1996. Five tugs pushed the ship up the river at low tide. It was a tight squeeze under the bridge -- the smokestacks of the 150-foot-high ocean liner cleared the bottom of the span by about five feet.
SS United States Conservancy
savetheunitedstates.org
"A Man and His Ship: America's Greatest Naval Architect and His Quest to Build the SS United States" by Steven Ujifusa (Simon & Schuster)
By CBSNews.com senior editor David Morgan