Proceedings of Sixth Annual Meeting 



57 



tracted by the excellent waterfront facilities offered by the Delaware 

 and the Schuylkill. This industrial development extended down 

 the river as far as Marcus Hook at the Delaware state line. 

 ■ Upon the outbreak of hostilities between this country and the 

 Central Powers, the natural development of the section was given 

 an extraordinary impetus. A decade's progress was made in a few 

 months. The largest shipyard in the world was constructed at 

 Hog Island, a yard having fifty shipways and employing v30,000 

 men and women. A rifle factory was established at Eddystone, em- 

 ploying 15,000 hands and capable of producing more rifles than all 

 the rifle shops in Great Britain. The Navy Yard at League 

 Island became the greatest repair yard on the Atlantic Coast, and 

 included a hydroplane station and experimental shop that was des- 

 tined to take first place among similar plants the world over. Great 

 quartermaster's depots and wharves were put under construction 

 at Greenwich Point. The Westinghouse Electric and Manufac- 

 turing Company at Essington, the Baldwin Locomotive Works at 

 Eddystone, the Sun and the Chester Shipyards at Chester, the great 

 oil refineries at Philadelphia, Chester and Marcus Hook were oper- 

 ated to capacity. The First Brigade Rifle Range and the Reming- 

 ton Range in Tinicum Township were used as the testing grounds 

 for the enormous output of airplane ammunition of the Frankford 

 Arsenal, and the rifles manufactured by the Remington Arms. A 

 score of smaller war plants in this same district added to the ever 

 increasing stream of ships and supplies. Extensive housing devel- 

 opments were undertaken to provide homes for the 100,000 and 

 more war-workers of this district. 



This narrow strip of territory from Greenwich Point to Marcus 

 Hook thus came to be the most vital link in the great chain that was 

 being forged to shackle the autocracy of Germany and her allies. 

 Upon the full and uninterrupted operation of its industries and 

 facilities depended in large measure the effectiveness of America's 

 part in the war. But a grave danger lurked in the background. 

 These shipyards, industries, depots and housing developments were 

 for the most part but isolated islands in the midst of some ten 

 thousand acres of foul m;arsh lands, checkered with miles of semi- 

 stagnant creeks and ditches, which gave rise to swarms of mos- 

 quitoes, equal in intensity to the salt marsh broods of the New 

 Jersey coast, and that menaced the health of all who sought to 

 work or to live in the infested territory. 



