Bennington Memorail

This year is the 121st anniversary of the boiler explosion aboard the USS Bennington anchored in San Diego Bay on July 21, 1905. A few years after that fateful day, on January 7, 1908 a large crowd gathered at this location in Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery to dedicate this 60-foot tall granite obelisk erected to the memory of the 66 sailors that died as a result of that explosion. The obelisk is composed of 74 slabs of San Diego County granite roughly dressed and capped by a pyramid of polished granite. The principal address was delivered by Rear Admiral Goodrich, who was the Commander of the Pacific Squadron at the time of the explosion.