Big Inch Pipeline
Longview, Gregg County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Before the United States entry into World War II following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in December 1941, ninety-five percent of the crude oil delivered to East Coast refineries was transported by tanker ships. Ninety percent of that oil originated from Texas oil fields. Beginning in february 1942, many U.S. oil tankers en route from the Gulf of Mexico to the East Coast were sunk by German submarines. Recognizing the need to transport oil under safer circumstances, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes developed a plan for massive overland oil pipeline. Under the auspices of the War Emergency Pipelines, Inc., construction began on the largest pipeline in history up to that time. Measuring twenty-four inches in diameter, the Big Inch pipeline extended from Longview to Norris City, Illinois, and eventually to refineries in the East. The Big Inch pipeline's impact on the war effort was tremendous, enabling the safe and timely transport of oil products vital to the Allies. During the height of wartime service, over 300,000 barrels of oil were delivered each day over the 1,476-mile line. When the war ended the Big Inch continued in service after conversion to a natural gas pipeline.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
When German U-boats began sinking American oil tankers off the East Coast in early 1942, the nation's fuel lifeline was suddenly in peril—most East Coast crude came by sea from Texas fields. In response the government built the Big Inch, a twenty-four-inch pipeline running 1,476 miles from Longview to Illinois and on to eastern refineries, the largest ever attempted. At its wartime peak it moved over 300,000 barrels a day, keeping oil flowing safely to the Allied war effort.
Why it matters
The Big Inch was a triumph of wartime engineering that helped fuel Allied victory and became a template for the modern American pipeline network.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the anxious months around America's entry into World War II, the nation's fuel supply ran on saltwater. Before Pearl Harbor drew the United States into the fighting in December 1941, roughly ninety-five percent of the crude oil reaching East Coast refineries arrived by tanker ship — and about ninety percent of that oil came out of the ground in Texas.
It was an efficient system in peacetime and a dangerous one in war. A long, exposed sea route carried the country's industrial lifeblood up the coast, and that route was about to become a shooting gallery.
Beginning in February 1942, German submarines began sinking American oil tankers as they steamed from the Gulf of Mexico toward eastern ports. Each lost ship meant lost fuel, lost crews, and a growing realization that the East Coast could be starved of oil without a single bomb falling on its refineries.
People & events
The answer came from Washington in the person of Harold Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior, who pushed a bold idea: if the sea lanes were too deadly, move the oil overland instead. Under a specially created entity, War Emergency Pipelines, Inc., the country set out to build the largest pipeline the world had yet seen.
The result was the Big Inch. Twenty-four inches in diameter, it ran from Longview all the way to Norris City, Illinois, and on toward the refineries of the East — a line stretching 1,476 miles across the American interior, safely out of reach of any submarine.
At the peak of its wartime service, the Big Inch delivered more than 300,000 barrels of oil every single day. That is a staggering, steady river of fuel, pushed across half a continent by pumps rather than propellers, keeping the tankers' deadly gamble off the table.
Its place in the American story
It is easy to picture a war as tanks and planes and beaches, and to forget that all of it ran on oil. The Big Inch mattered because it kept that oil moving when the enemy had found a way to stop it — feeding the refineries that fed the ships, aircraft, and armies of the Allied cause.
It was also a leap in engineering. Building a pipeline of that diameter over that distance, at wartime speed, proved something that had never been proven at scale, and the wartime achievement pointed straight toward the future.
When the fighting ended, the Big Inch did not retire. It was converted to carry natural gas, becoming part of the everyday energy network that would heat homes and power industry for generations. A pipeline born of emergency became a permanent piece of American infrastructure — and a template for the pipelines that crisscross the country today.
If you visit
Longview wears its place in this story quietly, because a pipeline's whole purpose is to be unseen — buried, humming, out of the way. That is part of what makes the marker worth seeking out: it puts a name and a beginning to something most of us never think about.
Standing here, it helps to trace the line in your mind's eye — from this East Texas ground, north and east across roughly 1,476 miles, to refineries near the coast. What looks like ordinary country was the launching point for one of the great engineering responses of the war.
For travelers drawn to how things actually work, it fits naturally alongside the region's broader oil heritage. East Texas is a landscape shaped by petroleum, and the Big Inch is the moment that story reached all the way to the front lines of a world war.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Harold Ickes
Related events
- · World War II
Themes & tags
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