VA-W6 Munitions Plant

Marker text: MUNITIONS PLANT

In 1918, the United States government purchased twelve square miles of land here to construct a powder-packing plant after negotiating a cooperative effort with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad and the Du Pont Engineering Company. Within three months, an army of 6,000 workers cleared the land and constructed roads, rail lines, and warehouses to create what the <i>Richmond Times-Dispatch</i> called "the mightest munition-packing plant in the world." Members of the Women's Munition Reserve worked in the powder bag-loading plant. Formally opened on 12 October, "Liberty Day," the plant was operating for less than a month before the armistice ending World War I was signed. Production was halved on 26 November and the plant closed shortly thereafter.

Department of Historic Resources, 1994