Maritime: Harbors, Ports & Lighthouses Sites

Pier 64, located along the Hudson River opposite West 24th Street with respect to 12th Avenue, is presently a New York City park. The park opened in 2009. The pier was originally constructed by the Work Projects Administration: "Built by the WPA for lease by the city to the Government's Panama Railroad Line. Dedicated by the Secretary of War on May 15, 1940. Thoroughly modern pier, 570 feet by 100 feet, with two-story steel pier shed and steel, brick and concrete bulkhead building, 340 feet by 50 feet, housing the offices of the steamship company." (National Archives) The shed has recently been...

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) reconstructed what was then Pier No. 8 in Baltimore Harbor. Believed destroyed, the exact location of Pier Eight is unknown to Living New Deal. Maryland WPA Project #18.

'This project at the port of San Francisco includes two passenger piers, each 161 by 840 feet, with railroad tracks on each side connecting the piers with the railway yards, a transit shed on each pier, and a connecting wharf between piers 35 and 37 for the handling of coastwise cargoes. ... The project was completed in May 1938 at a construction cost of $1,368,476 and a project cost of $1,410,235.'--Short and Brown, p. 427.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted repairs to Pier Six in Baltimore. Maryland WPA Project #157.

In its 1936 report entitled "The First 3 Years. PWA," the PWA remarks that "...probably the most dramatic and spectacular changes effected by PWA are advances in transportation." Among the the transportation advances listed in the report are water-related improvements to wharves, docks, piers, and other harbor improvements..." Such projects were "...built by local government units" with funding from the PWA. The report proudly highlights "...the huge new piers built for New York City to harbor new superliners, such as the Normandie and the Queen Mary.." ("The First 3 Years. PWA" Page 15) The  construction of pier 92 at the foot of West...

The artificial Point Judith Harbor in Rhode Island was improved with the aid of a federal Public Works Administration (PWA) project between 1934 and 1935. It is likely that work included the following: "the harbor at the mouth of the pond was dredged and a dock constructed in 1935 to create a port for Rhode Island's fishing industry." (blogspot) Jetty and wharf work was likely also included. The PWA supplied a $77,000 grant; the total cost of the project was $284,655. (PWA Docket No. RI 8129)

WPA crews conducted numerous improvements, including retaining wall construction and road paving, in the mid-1930s to the recently opened Point Reyes Lifeboat Station.

The Army Corps of Engineers, the Public Works Administration, and the National Industrial Recovery Administration funded and conducted improvement operations in the Port Allen Harbor between 1934 and 1935. The work consisted of creating a 1,200 foot “rubble-mound breakwater,” and dredging the “harbor basin about 1,000 feet wide, 1,500 feet long, and 35 feet deep; and an entrance channel 500 feet wide and 35 feet deep.” The estimated cost of the work in 1933 was $ 880,000 for new work, of which 200,000 was the contribution of local entities. The estimated cost for annual maintenance was $15,000. In October 1935, about $680,000 were...

"In January 1929 the Brownsville Navigation District was organized to secure a channel up the Rio Grande, 100 feet wide and 25 feet deep from the Gulf to a port near Brownsville. Work was started at the mouth of the channel in December 1933 and the entire project, including the terminal facilities, was substantially completed in August 1937. The project consisted of heavy rock jetties, a dredged channel 16 3/4 miles long leading to a turning basin 7 1/2 miles from the city of Brownsville, a concrete wharf, transit sheds, a separate oil dock, and rail and highway connections....

Funds for road improvements at the foot of Seventh Street in the Port of Oakland were secured through the State Emergency Relief Administration (SERA) in 1935 (Minutes of the Port Commissioners). SERA was funded by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA) of the New Deal. The improvements were to serve an expansion of the Albers Brothers milling plant, which had occupied the site alongside the Southern Pacific mole since 1918. Albers Bros. leased the site from the Port of Oakland. The Albers Bros. mill and grain silos (completed in 1940) were a landmark of the port for many years until torn down...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) provided funding to the Port Authority of Oakland to enlarge  the Outer Harbor area, just south of the Bay Bridge. The work was done as the bridge was under construction, c 1935-36. From PWA photographs the work appears to consist of a wharf area facing west, five large warehouse buildings and various roads and trackage surrounding those. The PWA final report elaborates:  "The project included reinforced concrete and creosoated pile wharfs, 850 feet of berthing space, 123,500 square feet of wharf area, 201,000 square feet of paved area on fill, 5,800 feet of railroad tracks, 114,300 square...

A WPA press release from Dec. 1937: "The Port of Olympia is making a definite bid for world trade with the new harbor facilities made possible by W.P.A. grants new totaling more than $87,296, Don G. Abel, state W.P.A. director stated today. 'With harbor facilities rapidly assuming modern form under a fourth W.P.A. project, now approximately 60 per cent completed, the largest ocean-going vessels will be able to berth, be unloaded and loaded with the same dispatch offered by other important world ports.' Abel stated. No decisive effort to improve shipping conditions at Olympia was made until recently. This took no definite trend...

The port of Redwood City has a convoluted history, but was finally fully established with New Deal help in the 1930s: "A 1929 bond issue campaign to improve the channel was defeated. But in 1935, a harbor bond issue of $266,000 was approved by voters and matching funds were obtained from the federal government. With this large showing of support, the channels were dredged and larger piers were built along the sections that parallel what is now Seaport Blvd. In 1937, the first cargo ship steamed into the new Port of Redwood City, and since that year, the Port has operated...

  General improvements, dredging and wharf and warehouse construction.

Bayonne's massive Port Terminal—later the Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne—was constructed with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds. While plans for the development were made in the early 1930s, construction occurred between 1937 and 1938. The PWA supplied a $2,430,000 loan and $1,785,682 grant for the project, whose total cost was $4 million. PWA Docket No. NJ 159.

This eventual WPA project was originally begun during the Hoover administration, in 1931. The current $625,000 pier took over 3 years to complete. Not part of the original appropriation, Congress approved the construction of a new pier head light in 1934, and it is likely this that was completed under the WPA. Constructed in what is considered the "Art Deco" style at a cost of $35,000, the light features a huge concrete base to provide increased elevation. Also, the uniquely arched base of the structure provides mariners with an improved view of the surroundings, allowing for safer passage. The original black lantern...

The Public Works Administration (PWA) funded an expansion of the Martinez public marina along the Carquinez Strait/Sacramento River.  The city had sought PWA support for expansion plans to what it called the Yacht Harbor since 1934 but was turned down at least twice, according to city council minutes for 1938 and 1939  (Henderson). Nevertheless, an undated PWA project card in the National Archives shows that the project was completed (see images). The marina is still there and very much in use, though various docks and walkways have undoubtedly been replaced over time.    

In 1943, the Public Works Administration (PWA) (by then part of the Federal Works Administration) funded a new ferry slip and expansion of the public wharf in Martinez.  The government grant was for $77,000, but the city accepted a bid of $72,000 from the Macco Construction company for $5,000 less than that (CC Gazette, 1943).  This project would have been one of the last funded by the PWA, which ended that year. The ferry slip consists of huge timbers sunk in the river bottom (possibly fixed in concrete). The project also expanded the width of the wharf by 12 feet. It...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted millions of dollars (not even adjusted for inflation) of improvement and development work at the former Raritan Arsenal in Edison, New Jersey. Work involved the construction and improvement of facilities and various utilities, including railroad tracks and docks. A cataloguing of these projects was undertaken by the DoD in its Heritage Assessment, cited below.

In the winter of 1933-34, the Civil Works Administration (CWA) provided relief labor for repairs to the jetty at the mouth of the Russian River at Jenner, California.  The CWA work was a minor contribution to a jetty construction project that had begun in 1929 and would continue off and on until 1948.  Funds were sought from the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1938, but the State of California stepped in with money, instead. In brief, a jetty was built between 1929 and 1931, but was almost immediately damaged by waves and storms, so repairs continued to be made through 1935....

The federal Public Works Administration helped to finance a large jetty construction project in Rye Harbor, New Hampshire. The PWA provided a $126,000 grant toward the project, whose construction occurred between 1938 and 1939. (PWA Docket No. NH 1090.) A local 1939 newspaper reported that: "A meeting of the Rye Harbor Development Commission was held yesterday... Matters were taken up pertaining to dredging operations at Rye Harbor and the National Guard encampment in preparation for a bill which will be placed before the legislature. It was brought out at the meeting that this project is one of the few undertakings being...

The Army Corps of Engineers, with funds from the National Industrial Recovery Act, carried out improvements in the San Juan Harbor between 1934-1940.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) constructed a "sea wall and boathouse" by the site of the former Naval Militia armory in Whitestone, New York. The boathouse, which still stands, is likely abandoned.

Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration work relief division efforts included "a concrete landing pier ... at Sein Bay, Culebra, where naval vessels and marines assemble for winter maneuvers." The exact location and status of the project are unknown to Living New Deal. Seine Bay is located "just to the eastward of Scorpion Point" (Navigation, pg. 383), which itself is at the southeast side of Target Bay (Results, pg. 248).

Multiple New Deal agencies conducted improvement and repair work at the facilities at Boston / East Boston South Ferry facilities.

The PWA and the Army Corps of Engineers made improvements to areas around St. Thomas Harbor and Lindbergh Bay. The work included filling swamp areas to reduce the incidence of malaria, and dredging to deepen and widen the “Haul Over Channel,” which connects the west end of St. Thomas Harbor to East Gregerie Channel.

The Public Works Administration built new State-owned docks that replaced the old docks in the Mobile Channel.  

The federal Public Works Administration (PWA) financed part of the construction of ferry boats for the Staten island Ferry, to the tune of $1,397,500. The first boat, "Gold Star Mother," was dedicated by Mayor La Guardia on May 7, 1937. The project was unusual, as The New York Times reported: the "United States Attorney General had construed a ferryboat as a building in order to make the PWA loan possible." PWA Docket No. NY 1085-R.

A WPA press release from Dec. 1937 announced: A project, "giving employment to 150 men, will operate in Seattle cleaning up Smith Cove Piers 40 and 41. It is designed to lead the way to the modernization of these two largest piers in the world. The WPA allotted $35,227 to carry on this project." Piers 40 and 41 were subsequently renamed. "In 1944, the military instituted a name change for all piers on the waterfront and Smith Cove Piers 40 and 41 became Piers 90 and 91. The property altogether became known as Terminal 91, and included much of what we know...

The 1934 town report under town appropriations says that $1500.00 was spent on "Wharf C.W.A. Fed. project" It is located behind the hardware store and is used by the the town fire department according to a recent selectmen report. A playground and small beach for residents are at the location also.

According to an article in the Illustrated Daily News, as part of a group of 8 federally funded projects was "No. 6 - Relocation of tracks around west basin, $1,470,000; will employ 210 to 300 men for from 18 to 20 months."

"Among the many lighthouses designed and erected by the technical staff of the Bureau of Lighthouses is the one at Tree Point, Alaska, which is an interesting example of this type of work. The machinery equipment building forms the base of the tower and is 18 feet wide by 36 feet long. The tower itself is 13 by 13 feet and 58 feet high and is surmounted by a lantern having the usual lighting and signal equipment. The entire structure is built of reinforced concrete. The project consisted of two towers of similar design on the Alaska coast. They were...

The US Coast Guard Station Humboldt Bay at the end of the Samoa Peninsula across from Eureka, Calif0rnia was built in 1936-37 as a federal military project, with the aid of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its relief workforce. (HABS, p. 17) The structure replaced a considerably smaller station built in 1878, known as the Humboldt Bay Life-Saving Station. This was part of a nationwide effort to upgrade Coast Guard facilities during the administration of Franklin Roosevelt (as ardent sailor and Undersecretary of the Navy in the early 1920s). (The Life-Saving Service and Revenue Cutter Service had been merged to...

The federal Works Progress Administration (WPA) conducted improvement on the training ship USS Illinois (later USS Prairie State), stationed off 135th Street on the Hudson River. The boat was sold for scrap in 1956. WPA project details: “Alter and rehabilitate U.S. Naval Training Ship "Illinois" at 135th Street and North River, including installing water lines, heating lines, ventilating ducts, and electrical work, replacing toilet and other partitions, tile floors and roofing, painting boat and superstructures” Official Project Number: 765‐97‐2‐8 Total project cost: $63,300.00 Sponsor: Commandant, 3rd Naval District, U.S. Navy

This is an unusual entry. The PWA assisted in the construction of the USS Mohawk, a Coast Guard cutter launched at Wilmington, Delaware. After World War II, the ship was sold to various parties, and served briefly as a museum at Staten Island before being sunk off the coast of Florida in 2012 as an artificial reef. It is now the USS Mohawk CGC Veterans Memorial Reef, a popular diving destination.

Mississippi Project 1102 "undertook a considerable program of improving its waterfront facilities and harbor for small craft, including slips and pier with recreational features, a clubhouse, swimming pool, and tennis courts" (Short & Stanley-Brown, 1939, p. 424). Miss Proj. 1419 provided improvements for "ocean-going vessels consist of a wharf 45 by 1, 790 feet with three lines of railroad tracks, and the warehouse 122 by 1,760 composed of eight compartments" (p. 425).

Improvements to the wharfs at the harbor in Kawaihae, Hawaii were made with the assistance of federal Public Works Administration (PWA) funds in 1937. The PWA provided a grant of $24,829 for the project, which provided seven and a half months to complete. The total cost of the project was $88,454. PWA Docket No. HI 1047.

Between World War I and World War II, the economy of New Bedford changed dramatically. The city’s whaling industry disappeared and textile manufacturing plummeted. In 1937, the city’s unemployment rate was a staggering 32.5 percent. New Bedford was down and out, with many families struggling to survive. The WPA's intervention in New Bedford was intended to boost the city's fishing industry. In 1925, New Bedford fishermen still had to sell their catches at Fulton Fish Market in New York because New Bedford did not have its own fish auction house. Eventually buyers began to come to New Bedford to buy...

“Location.— Wrangell Narrows lies to the west of Mitkof Island, connects Sumner Strait with Frederick Sound, and forms a part of the inside water route from Puget Sound to southeastern Alaska. (See U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey Charts Nos. 8170 and 8200.) Existing project.— This provides for a channel 200 feet wide on the bottom and 21 feet deep at mean lower low water, with increased depth in rock, and 27 feet deep at shoal no. 2; 24 feet deep and 275 feet wide at shoal no. 1, the easing of curves at shoals nos. 5, 6, 7, and 12,...

The PWA granted $121,800 "for building a jetty in Wychmere Harbor to provide a haven for fishing boats and yachts."