DTMB is a field activity of the Carderock Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

In 1896, David Watson Taylor designed and supervised construction of the Washington Navy Yard's Experimental Model Basin which was at that time the best facility in the world.

[2] The new navy modeling facility—named for David Taylor—was built in 1939 in today's community of Carderock just west of Bethesda, Maryland in Montgomery County.

Wavemaking capability exists in this basin, and there are three large underwater viewing windows at different elevations which are set into the wall about mid-length.

Represented by Betty Holberton, it was one of three government agencies present at the 1959 meeting where the computer language COBOL was created.