Port of Olympia – Olympia WA

Description

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 until November 1935, with the establishment of the first W.P.A. project designed to improve the harbor facilities. Wharfs were reconstructed and made safe for heavy railway and crane equipment, transit sheds built, roadways surfaced, railroad spurs leading to the decks constructed and a rock bulkhead, now under construction, were among the first four W.P.A. projects.

An average of 41 men have been employed daily for two years and the port authorities expect this number to be retained under the two additional proposed projects now waiting W.P.A. approval to complete the work.

‘Value of the assistance rendered by the Works Progress Administration to the Port of Olympia and the taxpayers of Thurston County and through them to the industries and commerce of Southwestern Washington is incalculable: without the WPA aid it would have been difficult and probably impossible to carry on this improvement work without calling on the taxpayers for additional assistance’ Ernest Gribble, Port Manager declared.”