Pacific Bridge Company was a large engineering and construction company. During World War II, Pacific Bridge Company of Alameda, California was selected to build US Navy Auxiliary Repair Docks (ARD) a type of Auxiliary floating drydock and Type B ship barges.[1]
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 sent to Britain in 1943. The type N3 ships were a Maritime Commission 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.[2]