Excerpt from Marine Structures, Their Deterioration and Preservation: Report of the Committee on Marine Piling Investigations of the Division of Engineering and Industrial Research of the Research Council

The section of the San Francisco Bay area forming the northeastern por tion of the bay contained many large and valuable structures practically all of which had been constructed on unprotected wooden piles during the 40 years preceding 1920. While San Francisco Bay proper had since 1849 been known to be infested by marine borers, none Of them had been known in the northeastern section through which the waters of the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers were discharged.

In 1914 it was found that a species Of shipworm previously unknown in, or at least unrecorded from, these waters had attacked the dikes at the en trance to the Mare Island Navy Yard and other structures in this part of the rbay, and in 1917 signs of serious damage appeared in the dikes. Within the next four years practically every timber structure in San Pablo Bay and Carquinez Straits was destroyed, and those in Suisun Bay were attacked. Local engineers, chemists and biologists formed a committee for the purpose of endeavoring to devise protective measures. On account Of the magnitude Of the problem and its importance to all sections Of the country, members of this committee requested the National Research Council to organize the study on a nation-wide scale.

For this purpose the National Research Council organized the Committee on Marine Piling Investigations to study the preservation of wooden strue tures from the attack of borers and to conduct an investigation into the value and proper use of the various substitutes for timber Of which concrete is the most important.

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