Hog Island - Global Security

Hog Island: "On 31 August 1917 contracts for the construction of three great Government-owned ship fabricating plants were awarded by the Emergency Fleet Corporation to the American International Corporation, the Submarine Boat Corporation, and the Merchants Shipbuilding Company, and orders were issued to exert every effort to rush the work. American International Shipbuilding was the largest single recipient of contracts awarded by the US government Emergency Fleet Corporation. The company signed substantial contracts for war vessels with the Emergency Fleet Corporation. The first contract called for fifty vessels, followed by another contract for forty vessels, followed by yet another contract for sixty cargo vessels.

Hog Island was a sizable piece of land -- about a thousand acres -- between Philadelphia and Chester, south of what was known then as League island, with a frontage along the Delaware River. The land was sold to the AIC in June 1917, well before the awarding of the Hog Island contract, after the transaction was in the government-business negotiation machinery in May], but well before public awareness [in August]. Hog Island landowners, jacked up the price to $2000 an acre, versus the $100 price that was previously the going rate.

Hog Island was built in just 10 months, under the shadow of scandal."


"The site was sold to the city of Philadelphia in April of 1930 for $3,000,000, a little less than twice what the Shipping Board paid for the land alone in 1920. It was scheduled to be the terminus of a major air, rail and water port, with most of the acreage occupied by the shipyard ways destined to be a 494-acre airport. This site is now occupied by Philadelphia International Airport."

I guess this clarifies most of the legal workings...this is pretty intense. Who knew?