roads. Port facilities represent an investment of 
$150,000,000 in modern piers and equipment to 
handle every type of commodity. 
The Port of Philadelphia is located at the head 
of a thirty-five foot channel at mean low water. 
This channel extends from the Port Richmond piers, 
Allegheny Avenue, to the sea. It is splendidly 
charted and marked with every possible aid to navi- 
gation. There are 1,100 acres available for the 
anchorage of vessels. There is a total berthing 
space of 241,000 lineal feet, 
There are excellent coal and oil bunkering facili: 
ties, modern coal dumpers, modern grain elevators 
with storage facilities in excess of 4,750,000 bushels, 
and with loading eapacity of 150,000 bushels an 
hour; two of the largest and most rapid ore hand. 
ling piers on the Atlantic Seaboard, with total un. 
loading capacity of 350 tons an hour. The piers 
and warehouses of the Philadelphia Tidewater 
Terminal are among the largest on the Atlantic Sea- 
board devoted exclusively to ocean commerce, with 
1,000,000 square feet of covered storage space and 
docking facilities for fifteen ocean-going vessels 
simultaneously. 
Pacific 
Coast 
Distribution 
—_— —— rr —— 
Sailings to Pacific coast ports 
offer shippers and receivers of 
freight a schedule not surpassed 
by any other Atlantic port. 
There are engaged in this coast- 
to-coast service seven steamship lines offering ap- 
proximately eight sailings every week. There are 
ten lines engaged in the coastwise trade, operating 
to every important point on the Atlantic Seaboard 
and Gulf. 
In this port the ocean carrier and the rail carrier 
meet at the wharf. Here lighterage is unnecessary 
and the transfer of cargo from ship to rail and 
reverse is completed in one operation. 
The Port of Philadelphia has sixty-eight ware. 
houses conveniently located and contiguous to the 
waterfront terminals and piers. These dry storage 
warehouses contain 7,653,000 square feet of floor 
space for general commodities. They are fireproof 
and equipped with modern sprinkler systems, reduc 
ing fire hazard to a minimum. In addition there 
are more than 15,000,000 cubic feet of cold storage 
space. In piers and terminals directly along the 
riverfront there are 16,300,000 additional feet of 
storage space. Storage and insurance rates are 
low in Philadelphia. 
These many factors combine to offer distribution 
facilities of water-borne commerce of unusual com- 
pleteness, rates that are as low or lower than other 
ports, prompt, direct interchange of cargoes, a 
quick turn-around in a non-congested, no-lighterage 
harbor, and supplies of food and fuel direct from 
their fields of production. 
Summary 
— 
Advantages Summing up the principal 
and points developed by the study 
Reasons of distribution and production 
in the Philadelphia area, we 
find this section’s advantages 
founded on its favorable geographic location. That 
is composed of two elements, namely, situation or 
a navigable stream adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, 
and a central location with respect to the greatest 
consuming areas in the country. 
These natural advantages, of course, constitite 
only the indispensable foundation required for a 
successful structure. The other element of the 
structure is the transportation and handling system 
which has been built up in the area. It is sufficient 
here to note that every form of land, water and 
air transportation is represented in the system, and 
all modern handling facilities. 
The trend of development in American industrial 
history has been along lines of production. It is 
probably true that this development has been 
brought to the point where today there is little room 
for improvement. But the development of distri: 
bution has not kept pace and that is where the 
ereatest opportunity for improvement lies today. 
As applied to such improvement, studies of dis- 
tribution facilities like the present one are valuable. 
To show a manufacturer that if he locates a plant 
in the Philadelphia area he can reach by overnight 
scheduled motor freight delivery, for instance, any 
point in an area populated by more than 16,000,000 
persons who have a total annual spendable income 
approximating $18,000,000,000, is to give him a 
fact of primary importance in his economic set-up. 
Similarly with the other distribution zones which 
have been considered in this report, some of which 
would be the needed standards for some industries 
and some for others. 
Consideration of the facts developed by this study 
leads definitely to the conclusion already stated in 
the opening paragraphs that from Philadelphia you 
can reach more people with less effort than from 
any other great distribution center in the country. 
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