NEW YORK (AP)  -- The World War II aircraft carrier Intrepid, powered by tugs and accompanied by a festive Hudson River traffic jam, was returned Thursday to the Manhattan pier where it has served for 24 years as a military and space museum.

PHOTOS: Intrepid Returns to Manhattan

Onlookers gathered along the riverbanks and in passing pleasure craft as the huge vessel was ceremoniously escorted on its 10-mile journey from Staten Island.


Steve Sandberg Reports

The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum had occupied the Manhattan space until late 2006, when it was moved for extensive repairs and improvements costing nearly $120 million.

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``She looks good, brand new -- but I admit to a little bias,'' said retired Rear Adm. James ``Doc'' Abbot Jr., 82, who commanded the carrier in the early 1960s and was back on board as honorary skipper.

Some 400 guests and former crew members also rode along, mingling on the flight deck in 60-degree weather. Jeff McAllister, commanding a tugboat fleet generating about 18,000 horsepower, said the stiff westerly wind helped the estimated 38,900-ton carrier to be guided into its newly rebuilt pier.

For most of the trip, one tugboat sufficed to pull the ship while another gently kept it on course at the stern.

The Intrepid arrived home about 2:30 p.m. following brief stops to salute the Statue of Liberty and unfurl a large American flag near ground zero, honoring victims of the terrorist 2001 attacks.

The trip was a reverse version of its trip to a New Jersey shipyard in December 2006 for a stem-to-stern overhaul that Intrepid officials said was much needed after 24 years at the Hudson River's Pier 86. The pier was demolished and rebuilt as part of the master plan.

A first attempt to tow the ship downriver then was foiled when its four 15-foot bronze propellers stuck in the mud, allowing the old ship to move only a paltry 14 feet.

The Army Corps of Engineers dredged the bottom to free it and since has increased the channel to 35 feet, giving Intrepid 11 feet of bottom clearance at high tide. The channel also was widened to 110 feet to accommodate the hull, which is 103 feet wide at the water line.

Launched in 1943 as one of the Navy's then-new Essex-class attack carriers, USS Intrepid figured in six major Pacific War campaigns including Leyte Gulf, history's greatest naval battle. It survived five Japanese kamikaze planes and a torpedo but lost 270 crew members in combat.

On Thursday, some of the former crew members recalled those events with a mixture of sadness and pride.

Ray Stone, 83, of South Salem, N.Y., struggled to keep his composure as he told how one kamikaze attack killed 26 of his fellow radarmen and how his friend Winston Goodloe, 86, of Clifton Park, won a medal for rushing into the chaos.

``The bodies were lying in rows on the deck,'' Stone said. ``Winston -- I didn't know him then -- went down to fight the fires and pull out bodies.''

Of such memories, Stone said, ``You look back, but you don't stare.''

Both men said young people today are not taught the history of that wartime era.

``You tell them about World War II and they say, `Japan? Really?' They don't know anything about history,'' Stone said. ``The Intrepid is now a museum ship and has to be run as a business, but it gives a chance for young people to learn about history.''

Intrepid later saw service in the Korean and Vietnam wars and was twice a recovery ship for NASA astronauts before it was decommissioned and mothballed in a Philadelphia shipyard -- slated for demolition until rescued by New York real estate developer and philanthropist Zachary Fisher.

Since 1982 it has become one of the city's most popular tourist sites, drawing some 750,000 visitors yearly over the past decade.

The 22-month renovation at a New Jersey drydock included repair and refurbishment of the ship's 65-year-old hull, followed by interior work at Staten Island's Stapleton naval dock -- with the opening of formerly sealed spaces and expanded interactive museum exhibits and the addition of five new aircraft to its flight deck collection.