Hog Island

Hog Island is the historic name of an area southwest of the central part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania along the Delaware River, to the west of the mouth of the Schuylkill River. Philadelphia International Airport now sits on the land that was once Hog Island. European settlers purchased Hog Island from the Lenape Indians in 1680. The settlers gradually developed the island by building log and earthwork dikes to minimize storm damage and convert the marshes into good grazing meadows. Hog Island supposedly got its name from the pigs which local residents left to roam free, as no fencing was needed. In 1917, as part of the World War I effort, the US government contracted American International Shipbuilding to build ships and a shipyard at...