How many acres was Ford Island before the dredging?
During the 1930s, the Navy contracted a $1.5 million dredging of Pearl Harbor to allow larger battleships and the fleet's carriers to enter it. Work began in May 1940 resulting in 13,000,000 cubic yards (9,900,000 m3) of material dredged from the opening of Pearl Harbor to build a channel to Ford Island as well as to create a turning channel around the island.  Material was also dredged to deepen the West Loch, East Loch, and Middle Loch for the mooring of battleships. With dredged material used as land fill, the island's size was increased from 334 acres (135 ha) to 441 acres (178 ha).The Navy replaced its PK, F5L, and H16 aircraft with newer models (see table below). In 1933 VP-8F arrived on station, and in 1935 the army bombers had become too large to be maintained and stored at Luke Field. Construction began on a new Army airfield, Hickam Army Airfield, named after pioneer U.S. Army Air Corps pilot Lieutenant Colonel Horace Meek Hickam. From 1936 to 1940 Pan American flew its Clipper service into Ford Island, using it as a refueling stop between the United States and Asia. The Navy built a $25,000 boathouse, spent $579,565 on a new crew barracks and built a firehouse, water-supply and lighting systems. In June 1936 the Navy lengthened the island's landing field by 400 feet (120 m), to 3,000 feet (910 m). In March 1937 Amelia Earhart, on her second visit to Luke Field, crashed her Lockheed Electra on takeoff.
In 1939, after three years of construction, Hickam Field opened. The Army transferred its operations there, leaving Luke Field under Navy control. The latter was renamed Naval Air Station Ford Island, and became the headquarters of Patrol Wing 2; its former namesake was re-honored with a new base, Luke Air Force Base in Arizona. A September 8, 1939, presidential emergency proclamation spurred the rapid construction of new facilities to prepare the island for additional operations. This included additional barracks, a new assembly and repair hangar, an administration building, a dispensary, a  control tower, a laundry and a theater. At the height of World War II, over 40,000 people lived or worked on the island.
334 acres