California Shipbuilding Corporation-- Part 3: "City Built On Invisible Stilts"

The huge Navy contracts also was a huge boost to California shipbuilding.    As a result, workers migrated to California in large numbers.  Shipyards sprang up from San Francisco to San Diego.  At its peak, shipbuilding in California involved 282,000 people.

Shipbuilding became a highly efficient industry.  The building of ships and workers peaked in 1943.

The Kaiser Steel plant in Fontana, California,  was completed in August 1943, which enabled further  production increases at Calship (California Shipbuilding Corp.).  Between September 27, 1941, and September  27, 1945, the shipyard launched 467 ships.

The Calship yard was known as "the city built on invisible stilts."  It was situated on marshy ground and was built on artificial earth supported by 57,000 piles driven into the mud.

--GreGen