I visited the USS Nautilus, the world's first nuclear-powered submarine. Take a look inside.

Nautilus, which was commissioned in 1954, hosted the first-ever underwater legislative meeting when 13 members of Congress rode Nautilus in 1955.

Its nuclear power allowed Nautilus to sail under the polar ice cap and become the first ship to traverse the North Pole in 1958 in an expedition known as Operation Sunshine.

Nautilus also participated in the naval blockade of Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962.

After 26 years of service, Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 and recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1982. It opened to the public as part of the Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut, in 1986.

In 2021, Nautilus underwent $36 million of preservation work and reopened in 2022.

The Submarine Force Museum is open Wednesday through Monday and is free to visit.

I was amazed by the size of the submarine. As I climbed aboard, the deck provided gorgeous views of the Thames River.

Here, crew members loaded torpedoes for firing.

After the torpedoes were loaded, the tubes were flooded with water. When the command to fire was issued, high-pressure air from the submarine's ejection pump then forced the water and the torpedoes out of the tubes.

Signs on the sink and mirror indicated that they were part of the submarine's original equipment.

Handles on top of the doorways provided a grip to hold on to while stepping through.

Nautilus had a crew of 11 officers and 105 enlisted service members.

A panel of instruments along the wardroom's wall indicated Nautilus' depth and speed.

Officers ate the same meals as the rest of the crew members, but their food was brought up to the officers' pantry via a dumbwaiter to be reheated and served on Navy china.

The walls of the narrow hallway were covered in wood paneling.

The book was gifted to Nautilus' commanding officer, Commander William R. Anderson, in 1957 by the French Navy's chief of staff, Adm. Henri Nomy. The fictional submarine in the book is also named Nautilus.

Fewer beds in a room indicated a higher rank.

The executive officer, also known as the "XO," was the ship's second-in-command.

The commanding officer used the stateroom as a workspace and living quarters.

The yeoman managed the ship's correspondence and personnel records.

The attack center contained periscopes to spot enemy ships and the controls to aim and fire torpedoes.

On the diagram, Nautilus is represented by the bottom ship, and the top ship represents the target.

The torpedo firing key, which was used to deploy the torpedoes, was indicated with a blue sign on the firing panel.

The alarms were color-coded for different scenarios:

• Yellow: a fire or casualty
• Red: flooding or a collision
• Green: submerging or emergency surfacing
• Pink: a power plant casualty

The guns were used for security while the submarine was in port.

Sonar stands for "sound navigation and ranging." Active sonar emitted sound pulses to locate targets, while passive sonar listened for underwater activity.

Before that, ladders were used to climb from one level to another.

Commands were issued in the control room by a crew member known as the diving officer of the watch, who received orders from the attack center.

When the main ballast tanks filled with water, the submarine would submerge. When filled with air, the submarine would surface.

The ESM bay's instruments could detect other ships' radars.

The radio room was located just off the control room on the right.

Here, crew members ate meals, worked, and spent their recreational time.

Damage control personnel used OBAs if fires broke out on board while submerged. The hoses on the masks could be attached to the submarine's reserve air supply.

Since there was no Navy chaplain on board the submarine, crew member volunteers conducted services for various faiths with items from the lay services box.

Nautilus was mainly powered by its nuclear reactor, but the battery served as an auxiliary source of power in case of an emergency.

Chief petty officers acted as liaisons between officers and crew members. Their living quarters were sometimes known as the "goat locker." There are a few possible explanations for the nickname:

• Chief petty officers used to be in charge of goats that were kept on ships to produce fresh milk
• Chief petty officers were nicknamed "old goats" because they were senior officers who had been in the Navy for a long time

A window connected the galley to the scullery, where crew members washed dishes.

Nautilus had two crew quarters, one at the front of the submarine and one at the back.

I swiveled the periscope until I could see my car sitting in the museum's parking lot, which was pretty cool.

Just over 70 years after Nautilus was commissioned as the first nuclear-powered submarine in the world, all of the US Navy's submarines are now nuclear-powered, according to the Department of Defense.