A coal wharf stood on the waterfront in the late 19th century, receiving coal carried by railroad from Newcastle and Renton. After being abandoned in the early 1900s, the wharf site became the Skinner and Eddy Shipyard. During World War I, the shipyard set records in ship construction by building 75 vessels, one-tenth of the nation’s total wartime shipping tonnage. After the war, an effort to reduce wages at the shipyard triggered the country’s first city-wide strike, immobilizing Seattle for five days. During the Depression of the 1930s, the abandoned shipyard became part of Hooverville, Seattle’s well-known shantytown, which housed displaced citizens until World War II.