USS Bainbridge, a 420-ton destroyer that was the first of her class, and the first ship classified as a destroyer by the U.S. Navy, was built at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Commissioned in November 1902, she remained in reserve status until February 1903 and then operated with the North Atlantic Fleet. In December 1903 Bainbridge left the United States on a long voyage to the Philippines. Accompanied by four of her sister destroyers, she steamed across the Atlantic, transited the Mediterranean, passed through the Suez Canal and crossed the Indian Ocean, arriving at Cavite, near Manila, in April 1904. She served in the Far East for the next thirteen years, mainly in the Philippine Islands and along the China coast.

Bainbridge left Asian waters in August 1917 to reinforce the U.S. Navy's battle against the German U-Boats in the eastern Atlantic. Between September 1917 and mid-1918 the destroyer operated in the vicinity of Gibraltar, escorting convoys and conducting patrols. She steamed across the Atlantic to Charleston, South Carolina, in July 1918 and spent the rest of World War I, and the early post-war months, serving along the U.S. East Coast. Decommissioned at the Philadelphia Navy Yard in July 1919, USS Bainbridge was sold for scrapping in early January 1920.

USS Bainbridge was named in honor of Commodore William Bainbridge (1774-1833), one of the leading figures of the early 19th Century U.S. Navy.