Why the U.S. Navy Once Had a Concrete Ice Cream Barge

THE UNITED STATES’ PROHIBITION YEARS, which lasted from 1920 to 1933, didn’t just give the bootleg liquor and pharmaceutical industries a boost. They also transformed ice cream from a sweet treat into a bonafide craze, since people began to socialize at soda fountains instead of bars. Yet Prohibition may have turned the U. S. Navy into ice cream’s biggest fans—to the point where they once bought an enormous, million-dollar floating ice cream parlor made solely to accommodate demand.