After the U.S. entered the war on 1 January 1942, this vital link was attacked by German submarines in Operation Paukenschlag, threatening both the oil supplies to the north-east and its onward transshipment to Great Britain.

[8] Insurers began to refuse to underwrite the remaining vessels and the volume of crude oil reaching the north-east from the Texas Gulf dropped.

[9] In response, steps were taken to better protect the tankers from attack, but losses continued to mount until, in April 1942, they were banned by the Navy from operating the north-east sea routes.

[6] Transporting petroleum by pipeline from the south-west to the north-east was a potentially attractive option for the government as it would be safe from submarine attack and could operate efficiently regardless of the weather.

[10] Pipelines had been in use in the industry since 1862, but by the 1930s they were usually only 8 inches (200 mm) wide, able to deliver 20,000 barrels of oil a day; larger pipes could be built, but due to structural weaknesses they could not operate at the regular pressures.

[11] Technologies to build high-pressure pipes at sizes larger than 12 inches (300 mm) began to emerge during the two decades before the war, but their adoption was not commercially viable.

[14] A consortium led by Standard Oil put forward a bid to build one in spring 1941, but the plan failed, due to concerns over the amount of steel that would be required for such a project.

[16] New laws were passed to enable the building of pipelines necessary for the war effort, including the compulsory purchasing of land under the right of eminent domain.

[16] Initial planning for the Inch pipelines began on May 15, 1941, when a meeting of Ickes and the oil industry commissioned an aerial survey of the possible route.

[16] The government Supply Priorities and Allocations Board, however, refused to approve the necessary steel, and the consortium's plan was dissolved shortly before the outbreak of war.

[16] After the outbreak of fighting, and the consequent deterioration of the sea routes for transporting oil, industry representatives met in March 1942 to produce a new pipeline strategy, called the Tulsa Plan.

[17] This included the construction of the Inch pipelines, backed by the slogan "longlines are lifelines", for which the steel was finally approved by the War Production Board on June 10.

[19] The WEP was led by Burt Hull and W. Alton Jones, both with extensive backgrounds in the industry, with Oscar Wolfe as its chief engineer.

[26] Charles Cathers of the DPC directed the engineering project, with much of the work undertaken by Oscar Wolfe and, on the Little Inch pipeline, F. E. Richardson and L. F.

[27] A meeting of all of the contractors for the build was held at the start of the July to kickstart the project; overall, 82 different companies would take on the pipeline work on a "cost-plus" basis, employing over 16,000 staff.

[28] The construction required the government to acquire permission to build the pipeline across 7,500 parcels of land; of these, the right of eminent domain had to be exercised in 300 cases.

[29] Major Jubel Parten, a director in the Petroleum Administration for War, considered the Inch pipelines to be part of “the most amazing Government-industry cooperation ever achieved”.

[31] The National Tube Company of Lorain, Ohio produced from 137,500 tons of steel the pipe for the 550-mile section between Long View and Norris City in 4 month, the last shipment left on November 10, 1942, all together a total 4,600 gondola carloads.

[22] The first part to be constructed was the Big Inch, its initial leg running to an interim terminal at Norris City, where oil was to be off-loaded to the railroad network.

[52] Demand for natural gas was rising rapidly, and it was produced in large quantities in the Texas oilfields, but could not be got to market in the north-east and was otherwise burnt off uselessly into the atmosphere.

[50] A government inquiry was undertaken to determine the future use of the pipelines, and took evidence from the various stakeholders, most of whom presented the case that favored their companies or industry.

[56] Assessing the different bids proved difficult and the discussions became enmeshed in national politics, with companies seeking support from various Washington politicians.

[58] A fresh inquiry was declared in November, voiding the previous competition and the Inch Lines were transferred to the War Assets Administration on December 2, 1946, for disposal.

Its bid of $143,127,000 would make the disposal the largest sale of war-surplus property to the private sector following World War II.

[65][66] TETCO was the brainchild of corporate lawyers Charles Francis and James Elkins, who convinced the construction specialists George and Herman Brown, and the fuel engineer E. Holley Poe, that buying the Big and Little Inch pipelines could be a lucrative opportunity.

[72] TETCO immediately began to convert the pipelines for permanent use as natural gas transmission lines, under the direction of Baxter Goodrich, their chief engineer.

[73] Demand continued to increase, requiring additional compressor capability, and by January 1949 the pipelines were moving 508,000,000 cubic feet (14,400,000 m3) a day.