Facility Focus: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

In 1807, President Thomas Jefferson founded the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey to provide nautical charts to the maritime community for safe passage into American ports and along the coastline. The Weather Bureau was founded in 1870 and one year later, the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries was founded. Individually, these organizations were America's first physical science agency, America's first agency dedicated specifically to the atmospheric sciences, and America's first conservation agency.