As nascent national park in old California shipyard shows, wartime Rosies still riveting

Fog drifts over the old shipyard, casting a veil over the shoulders of empty factories where thousands of women once thronged, welding and hammering and typing and filing as they put a lipsticked smile on the face of World War II on the U.S. homefront.

This is the Rosie the Riveter World War II Home Front National Historic Park, a sprawling tribute to the sacrifices of a generation _ and named for the iconic archetype of the women who took over working in factories for the men off at war _ located in what was once a boomtown on the shores of San Francisco Bay.

As recounted in Ken Burns' recent documentary "The War," which details the impact of the …