Dravo Corporation Shipyard
Neville Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
During World War II, Dravo's shipyard here was a leader in the manufacture of Landing Ship Tanks--LSTs--for the U.S. Navy. Dravo's over 16,000 workers produced a total of 145 LSTs. This and four other inland yards, all using techniques pioneered by Dravo, contributed two-thirds of the Navy's fleet of over 1,000 LSTs. These amphibious craft proved vital to the success of Allied landings on enemy shores, 1943-45.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
On this island in the Ohio River just below Pittsburgh, the Dravo Corporation turned a peacetime engineering firm into one of the arsenal of democracy's most unlikely powerhouses. Its inland shipyard mass-produced Landing Ship Tanks—the ungainly, flat-bottomed LSTs that carried tanks, trucks, and troops straight onto hostile beaches. Using assembly-line techniques Dravo pioneered, this yard and four others hundreds of miles from any ocean built two-thirds of the Navy's entire LST fleet, floating them down the rivers to the sea. More than 16,000 workers here produced 145 of the vessels between 1943 and 1945.
Why it matters
The LST was one of the decisive workhorses of Allied amphibious warfare, from Sicily to Normandy to the Pacific, and Pittsburgh's rivers helped make its mass production possible—proof that America's industrial heartland won battles it never saw.
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Related events
- · World War II
- · Allied amphibious landings 1943-45
Themes & tags
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