The company then explored other potential sites as far south as Virginia, particularly in the Delaware River area, and ultimately chose a location in the southern part of Camden, New Jersey.

[3] Site selection considered the needs of the planned application of bridge-building practices of prefabrication and assembly-line production of ships in covered ways.

New York Ship's unusual covered ways produced everything from aircraft carriers, battleships, and luxury liners to barges and car floats.

During World War I, New York Ship expanded rapidly to fill orders from the U.S. Navy and the Emergency Fleet Corporation.

A critical shortage of worker housing led to the construction of Yorkship Village, a planned community of 1,000 brick homes designed by Electus Darwin Litchfield and financed by the War Department.

After World War II, a much-diminished New York Ship subsisted on a trickle of contracts from the United States Maritime Administration and the U.S. Navy.