Pacific Bridge Company was a large engineering and construction company. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Pacific Bridge Company of

Alameda, California Alameda ( ; ; Spanish for "Avenue (landscape), tree-lined path") is a city in Alameda County, California, United States, located in the East Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), East Bay region of the Bay Area. The city is built on an informal archipe ...

was selected to build

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

Auxiliary Repair Docks (ARD) a type of

Auxiliary floating drydock An auxiliary floating drydock is a type of US Navy List of auxiliaries of the United States Navy, auxiliary Dry dock#Floating, floating dry dock. Floating dry docks are able to submerge underwater and to be placed under a ship in need of repai ...

and

Type B ship The Type B ship is a United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) designation for World War II barges. Barges are very low cost to build, operate, and move, and can transport bulky cargo. Because barges lack engines for self-propulsion, they are ...

barges A barge is typically a flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and marine water environments. The first modern barges were pull ...

USSARD1undertowUSSBridgeAF1PanamaCanal28October1934

History

The Pacific Bridge Company was founded by William Henry Gorrill in 1869. In 1942 The Pacific Bridge Company was chosen to build ships, because of their reputation and skills, particularly welding. Since the coastal shipyards were busy building large vessels for the war effort, such as aircraft carriers, battleships, cruisers and destroyers, there was no alternative but to use other builders, like Bridge builders for the production of small and medium ships. Pacific Bridge Company built the first nine N3-S-A1, Type N3 ship

cargo ship A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's List of seas, seas and Ocean, oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. ...

sent to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

in 1943. The type N3 ships were a

Maritime Commission The United States Maritime Commission was an independent executive agency of the U.S. federal government that was created by the Merchant Marine Act of 1936, which was passed by Congress on June 29, 1936, and was abolished on May 24, 1950. The c ...

small coastal cargo ship designed to meet urgent World War II shipping needs. Two of the N3 ships were completed and ready in a record-breaking 22 days, A crew of 480 men worked on the ship. The SS ''Samuel Very'' was one of these ships. Two N3 ships were built at the same time in the two drydocks at the Alameda Shipyard. The Alameda Shipyard had two traveling cranes to move parts.

Henry J. Kaiser Henry John Kaiser (May 9, 1882 – August 24, 1967) was an American industrialist who became known for his shipbuilding and construction projects, then later for his involvement in fostering modern American health care. Prior to World War II, ...

's had the Pacific Bridge Company join as one of Kaiser's "Group of Six" construction companies that help build the

Hoover Dam The Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado, Black Canyon of the Colorado River (U.S.), Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. Constructed between 1931 and 1936, d ...

, due to Pacific Bridge's expertise. Pacific Bridge also brought its capital into the large project The shipbuilding yard was on the Oakland Alameda estuary. Some residential homes near Clement Avenue and Chestnut Street were purchased and taken down or moved to be part of the Emergency Shipbuilding Program. The Pacific Bridge Company was a contractor to the US Navy to build the ships. The shipyard was to the West of the General Engineering & Dry Dock Company. The land for the shipyard was purchased by the Navy from 24 March to 7 July 1942. The Pacific Bridge Company Oakland Alameda yard discontinued shipbuilding after World War 2, continued manufacturing until 1969. In 1969 the yard was sold for redevelopment and today is the Alameda Marina. The Alameda Marina also has a commercial shipyard, ship maintenance facilities, industrial space, storage, and office buildings. Part of the shipyard became the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center in 1949. The Site had several training buildings that provided training on ship systems. On January 21, 2016 demolition started of the Pacific Bridge Company workshop building on Clement Ave. The land will be used for a new condominium complex. PC interstate-5 bridge cars ca1920

Before ship building, Pacific Bridge Company built bridges in both the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

and Portland, Oregon. Pacific Bridge Company built 10 bridges over the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...

near Portland. To provide stone for project Pacific Bridge Company purchased ''The McBain Stone Quarry'' from the estate of James McBain, in Klickitat County, Washington near the Klickitat River in 1922.

William Henry Gorrill

In 1869 William Henry Gorrill founded the Pacific Bridge Company. Pacific Bridge Company was incorporated on March 29, 1872. W. H. Gorrill was President; C. F. Lucas was vice-president and C. H. Gorrill was Secretary and Treasurer. William Henry Gorrill was born in 1841. William Henry Gorrill was an Ohio attorney, who was told to go west for his health, due to his

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

and turned from law to building bridges. William came to California in 1870. William Henry Gorrill's wife was Katharine B Gorrill, they had one daughter, Marion H Gorrill and a son William H. Gorrill born in Oakland in 1872. William Henry Gorrill died in 1874. His son William H. became an attorney in Berkeley and for a short time professor at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. William H. died in Berkeley on 20 Dec. 1961.

Swigert family

Charles F. Swigert and H. C. Campbell purchased Pacific Bridge Company in the 1890s from William Henry Gorrill. Charles F. Swigert had been working at Pacific Bridge since 1881. Charles F. Swigert became and was President of The Pacific Bridge Company for over 40 years. H. C. Campbell became the Sec. In 1887 Charles F. Swigert and Mr. Campbell built the City and Suburban railway, which they operated until 1905. In 1005 they sold it to the Portland Railway, Light and Power Company. At the time of the sale it had eighty miles of single track. Charles F. Swigert also helped build the Lyle and Goldendale Railroad, later sold to the

Northern Pacific Railway The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...

. Charles F. Swigert turned the company over to his son Gorill Swigert. Gorill Swigert turned the company over to his son William Swigert. Charles F. Swigert and his wife Rena Bliss Goodnough Swigert had three children: Charles F. Swigert, Jr., was vice president and manager of the Electric Steel Foundry Company; Ernest G., sales manager for Electric Steel Foundry and is married and has two children: Nannie and Ernest G., Jr.; and W. G., a director of the Pacific Bridge Company, and is married and has three children: Phyllis, W. G., Jr., and Juliette. H. C. Campbell built large bridges on the East coast before coming out west. H. C. Campbell was part of ''The Willamette Iron Bridge Company'' which failed to build the Willamette Bridge, but became part of the Pacific Bridge Company which built the Willamette Bridge. Philip Hart was President of The Pacific Bridge Company in the 1930s-1940s and was president at the building of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge completed in 1940. Was on United Airlines Flight 6, a

DC-3 The Douglas DC-3 is a propeller-driven airliner manufactured by the Douglas Aircraft Company, which had a lasting effect on the airline industry in the 1930s to 1940s and World War II. It was developed as a larger, improved 14-bed sleeper ...

, that crashed landed in water a mile off the coast of

Point Reyes Point Reyes ( , meaning 'Cape of the Kings') is a prominent landform and popular tourist destination on the Pacific coast of Marin County in Northern California. It is approximately west-northwest of San Francisco. The term is often applied ...

, CA while flying from Seattle to San Francisco on November 28, 1938. The DC-3 was in a storm and ran out of fuel. There were five fatalities: the first officer, stewardess, and three passengers including Philip Hart.

Bridges and piers built

A few of the many built: * Morrison Bridges * Burnside Bridge 1926 * Interstate Bridge 1916-1958 * Ross Island Bridge 1926 (one of several contributing contractors, but not the main contractor) * Shepperd's Dell Bridge 1914 * Multnomah Creek Bridge 1920 * Latourell Creek Bridge 1914 * Felton Covered Bridge 1892 * California Powder Works Bridge 1872 *Aliso Road Covered Bridge, Boyle Heights, 1873 * St. Johns Bridge *

Tacoma Narrows Bridge The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a pair of twin bridges, twin suspension bridges that span the Tacoma Narrows strait of Puget Sound in Pierce County, Washington, Pierce County, Washington (state), Washington. The bridges connect the city of Tacom ...

1940 that failed, (note design team was headed by Clark Eldridge, a bridge engineer with the Washington State Department of Highways, not Pacific Bridge) * Willamette River Bridge, original 1888, replaced by new Oregon City Bridge * Bridal Veil Falls Bridge *Farm Island Bridge in 1875 in Alameda. *Rockport Suspension Bridge, 1876 *Old Oregon City Suspension Bridge, 1888 * Longview Bridge 1928 now called the Lewis and Clark Bridge. * Fort Flagler batteries, 1897 * Santa Cruz Railroad Bridges, 1874 *Snake River Bridge at Burbank burns, 1921 *Bridges for the Monterey Felton & Pescadero Railroad, part of South Pacific Coast Railroad, 1885 * New Allen Street Bridge, 1923, replace the Allen Street Bridge disaster * Burnside Bridge *Ten metal truss bridges were shipped to Hawaii in In 1884 * Red Bank Creek Bridge * Part of the

, bridge building and underwater foundations *Part of the

Golden Gate Bridge The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean in California, United States. The structure links San Francisco—the northern tip of the San Francisco Peni ...

project, awarded contract for San Francisco Tower Pier and Fender, Marin Tower Pier for $2,935,000.

Pearl Harbor salvage

Pacific Bridge Company was awarded a contract from the Navy to salvage the sunken ships at

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

after the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States Pacific Fleet at Naval Station Pearl Harbor, its naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu, Territory of ...

. Pacific Bridge drivers worked many hours to save ships and lives. The salvage and raising of the USS ''Oklahoma'' (BB-37), USS ''Utah'' (BB-31) and USS West ''Virginia'' (BB-48) was given to Pacific Bridge.

Ships built from 1942 to 1944

N3-S-A1 cargo ships

*SS Charles H. Salter, wrecked and lost off Iceland 1946 *SS Cyrus Sears, sold: kidby 1951, Borgfred 1951, Lise 1954, Aura 1955, Fernando 1960, Fata Morgana 1962, Giannis 1963), sank 1964 *SS Benjamin Sherburn, sold Winga 1949, Rilda 1952, Raed 1968, scrapped 1972 *SS Samuel V. Shreve, sold Jura 1949, Barcelona 1957, foundered 1963 *SS Reuben Snow, sold Beechland 1949, Teresa Cosulich 1951, Agia Varvara 1963, exploded and sank 1968 *SS Caleb Sprague, torpedoed and sunk by German motor torpedo boats on January 31, 1944, off Beachy Head *SS Benjamin Tay, sold Benue 1951, Anglo 1952, Lindvang 1965, Danaos 1969, Veta 1974, Agios Favourios III 1975, scrapped 1980 *SS Charles Treadwell, sold Dundrum Bay 1950, Esito 1952, Sandra 1953, West Indies 1953, Esito 1954, wrecked 1964 *SS Samuel Very, sold Angusloch 1951, Changsung 1953, scrapped 1985

Type B ship barges

Freight Barges YFN were not self-propelled, but towed to place. A YFN could carry a load of 550 long tons. YFN were used near shore and had a steel hull. They worked in harbors, rivers and other protected waters. They were 110 feet long, with a 32-foot beam and a maximum draft of 8 feet. Pacific Bridge built 27 YFN Freight Barges in 1943. Pacific Bridge also built 90 of the 138-ton barges, these smaller barges were sometimes called lighters, they were 110-foot-long, some were covered workshops, due to their simple and well-built construction some are still in service today. *YFN 576 to YFN 603.

Medium Auxiliary Repair Docks (ARDM)

Auxiliary repair dock Mobile (ARDM) are 5,200 tons and are 489 feet long. ARD had a ship form hull and lifting capacity of 3,500 tons. ARDM were used to repair

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

s, and small auxiliaries. ARDM has a crew of 130 to 160 men. * USS ''Oak Ridge'' (ARDM-1) Now US Coast Guard * USS ''Almagordo'' (ARDM-2) Now in Ecuador * USS ''Endurance'' (ARDM-3) Now in South America

Auxiliary Repair Docks (ARD)

Built by Pacific Bridge in Alameda CA and are 483 feet long, beam of 71 Feet, and draft of 5 Feet. Ship displacement 4,800 tons. Crew complement 6 Officers and 125 Enlisted. Armament of two single

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models empl ...

. ARD had a crew of 100 to 160 men. ARD have a bow and are sea worthy. They are self-sustaining with rudders to help in tow moving and have two cranes with a 5-ton capacity. Normal also had stowage barge for extra space. Used to repair destroyers and submarines. Class 2 could repair

Landing Ship, Tank A Landing Ship, Tank (LST) is a ship first developed during World War II (1939–1945) to support amphibious operations by carrying tanks, vehicles, cargo, and landing troops directly onto a low-slope beach with no dock (maritime), docks or pier ...

(LST). The stern of ship is open to have the ship in need of repair enter. * USS ARD-1 (displacement of 2200 tons) (Built in 1933) (only one in class) * USS ARD-2 sold in 1963 * USS ARD-3 sold 1999 * USS ARD-4 sold 1961 ** ''ARD-2-class 410 feet long, 49 feet, 4 inches wide, ARD-5 to 11:'' * USS ''Waterford'' (ARD-5) * USS ARD-6 sold 1961 * USS ''West Milton'' (ARD-7) Scrapped in 1992 * USS ARD-8 sold 1961 * USS ARD-9 sold 1977 * USS ARD-10 sold, scrapped in 2014 * USS ARD-11 sold 1977 ** ''ARD-2-class wide: 410 feet long, 49 feet, 4 inches 59 feet, 3 inches wide, ARD 12 to 32:'' * USS ARD-12 sold 1987 * USS ARD-13 sold 1977 * USS ARD-14 sold 1980 * USS ARD-15 sold 1971 * USS ARD-16 by Pacific Bridge, sold moved to Mobile AL * USS ARD-17 sold 1971 * USS ''Endurance'' ARD-18 ARDM 3, laid up at

Charleston Naval Shipyard Charleston Naval Shipyard (formerly known as the Charleston Navy Yard) was a U.S. Navy ship building and repair facility located along the west bank of the Cooper River, in North Charleston, South Carolina and part of Naval Base Charleston. ...

* USS ''Oak Ridge'' ARD-19 ARDM 1, to

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and Admiralty law, law enforcement military branch, service branch of the armed forces of the United States. It is one of the country's eight Uniformed services ...

in 2002 * USS ''White Sands'' ARD-20 by Pacific Bridge Co., (changed to AGDS-1), sold 1974 * USS ARD-21 reserve * USS ''Windsor'' (ARD-22) sold 1976 * USS ARD-23 sold 1992 * USS ARD-24 sold 1982 * USS ARD-25 sold 1973 * USS ''Alamogordo'' ARD-26 sold 2000 * USS ARD-27 Scrapped in 1974 * USS ARD-28 sold renamed '' Capitan Rodriguez Zamora'' * USS ''Arco'' ARD-29 sold to Iran 1971 * USS ''San Onfre'' (ARD-30) by Pacific Bridge Co. * USS ARD-31 To

US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

in 1974 * USS ARD-32 sold 1960 * USS ARD-33 (By Dravo Corp.) renamed AFDL 47 '' Reliance'' The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia, Floating Dry Docks
/ref>
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pacific Bridge Company Construction and civil engineering companies of the United States Bridge companies 1869 establishments in California Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States Ships built in Alameda, California Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1869 American companies established in 1869