Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1914-12-23
new Castle Looks
FOR Great BOOM
PrOjectile Plant Looked Up
on as FOrerunner of Great
er Industrial Growth
WORK TO BE RUSHED
ON NEW STEEL MILLS

With the contract awarded to the viii
liam Steel aud Sons Company OF Phila
delphia, Tor the construction OF the first
group OF buildings which are tocomposc
the big proicctic plant of ,hc Bethlc-
hem steel Company at New Castle aud
actual work begun On the piers which
are to be- constructed ON the same site,
New Castle expects to begin career OF
% manufacturing city which viii make IT.
rival of Wilmington. The contracts
tor the building, already designed
amount to s400Oo. But II is admitted
now that other buildings are proposed,
and that the first group of buildings
will only be "a portion of those that
eventually will cover the ground.
There is no one i'm this city who repre-
scnts the Bethlehem steel Company,
though the Harlan and llollingswurth
Corporation is also controlled by Charles
NJ Schwab, who owns the steel company,
but they are separate and distinct cor
porntions.
That the plant at New Castle would
be small one aud employ only about
80 men was the statement made by di-
rcctors of the Bethlehem Company when
they were here few weeks ago, but ia
the meantime Mr. Schwab. who is now
ON the ocean, has obtained contracts
for millions of dollars worth of proicc-
tiles and many of them may be made at
New Castle Half million dollars for
the buildings and the employment Of
several hundred men i'm the plant is
what New Castle hears. and II is this
statement which makes New Castle
happy.
According to the statement of the
owners the first buildings erected will
be- power plant Office building, mat
chine shop, sorting building, packing
building, building where some OF the
workers viii lodge and four others, the
uses of which arc not designated.
Piers for Ocean Liners.
On the river front of the site there
will be four piers, each 400 feet or moro
in length and ON account of the depth
of water at New Castle the largest ocean
liners can be accommodated there. One
of these piers has been under cons, rue
ton for several weeks and large force
oi men have been al work grading for
the buildings, so that it viii require very
little time for the contractors to begin
MNik on INC ItW structures
The primary object OF the plant. OF
course, will be 10 manufacture, or rather
10 load. proiectilcs. but no one in New
Castle for moment supposcs that four
piers are necessary TO accommodate the
vessels which take away these proicctlcs
after they have been loaded.
Though no information can be obtain
ed here the general idea is that some of
the vessels which Charles NJ. Schwab
viii place in service bringing foreign
ore into the United States for use in
his Bethlehem steel plant will be UNI
loaded here and that the wharycs are
intended for that purpose Just as much
/ as for loading vessels with proicctilcs.
! They are also of the opinion that some
of the orders for steel which arc OBJ
tanned abroad, viii he shipped from
New Castle.
From the railroad line, which is not
far distant. railroad will be built into
the new plant. While this will be- a
branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad
system, il will have connections he
tween Wilmington and New Castle with
the Philadelphia and Reading and Bal
timorc and Ohio Railroad systems. The
railroad equipment will be as near per
feet as IT is possible TO design it,
II is expected that work will be COM
menced by the Steel & Sons Company
within a few days, for sufficient grad
ing has been done by the men who
have been at work to have everything
in readiness, and the engineers of the
company long since laid out the lines.
The buildings will all be Of brick and
concrete.
Powder for the proje tile plants will
be obtained from the smokeless pow
der plant Of the DUPONT Powder Com
paIy. which is nearly opposite, at Car
ney's Point. n. ]. AT present numer-
GUS projectiles are being loaded at
that place, but the DUPONT Company
needs the room which is row being
devoted 10 the loading Of projcctiles
for the manufacture of powder. For
this reason work on the new plant will
be pushed just as rapidly as possible.
] The new branch of the Bethlehem
company will occupy 81 acres of land
/ directly adjoining New Castle. to the
/ south. II is the opinion Of the people
! Of the city that this will cause the
city to grow in that direction. and in
anticipation Of the boom which Is OK
pected large number Of houses in
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