League Island was an island in the Delaware River, part of the city of Philadelphia, just upstream from the mouth of the Schuylkill River, which was the site of the Philadelphia shipyard, which eventually became the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, now known as the Philadelphia Naval Business Center.
League Island is no longer actually an island, since the Back Channel, which separated it from the mainland, was closed at the eastern end to create land for a military airfield, Mustin Field, which is no longer existent. The western end of the channel became the present Reserve Basin, which once held the ships of the U.S. Navy's reserve fleet.
Famous quotes containing the words league and/or island:
“Stereotypes fall in the face of humanity. You toodle along, thinking that all gay men wear leather after dark and should never, ever be permitted around a Little League field. And then one day your best friend from college, the one your kids adore, comes out to you.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“The island dreams under the dawn
And great boughs drop tranquillity;
The peahens dance on a smooth lawn,
A parrot sways upon a tree,
Raging at his own image in the enamelled sea.”
—William Butler Yeats (18651939)