Henry Kaiser applied mass production techniques to shipbuilding with revolutionary results. Rather than building ships from the keel up in traditional fashion, Kaiser's yards prefabricated sections in workshops, then assembled the completed sections on the shipways. The approach reduced construction time dramatically. The SS Robert E. Peary, a Liberty ship, was assembled in four days, fifteen hours, and twenty-nine minutes in November 1942, a record that was as much a publicity stunt as an engineering achievement but demonstrated what the new methods could accomplish.

The Richmond Shipyards drew workers from across the United States, transforming the city's population from 23,000 to over 100,000 during the war. Many of the new arrivals were African Americans from the South, part of the Second Great Migration, drawn by defense industry wages that far exceeded what they could earn at home. Women filled roles previously reserved for men, working as welders, electricians, and crane operators. The iconic figure of 'Rosie the Riveter' was inspired in part by workers at the Richmond yards. The Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park now preserves this history.

When the war ended, so did the shipyards. Richmond's population plummeted as war workers returned home or moved elsewhere. The city's economy, built almost entirely around shipbuilding, collapsed. The African American community that had established itself during the war faced housing discrimination and diminished economic opportunity. Richmond spent decades recovering from the shipyards' closure, and the environmental legacy of wartime industrial production continued to affect the waterfront. Today, the former shipyard sites are being redeveloped, and the national park ensures that the extraordinary wartime effort -- and the people who made it possible -- is not forgotten.