was a pipeline for crude oil; it ran from the East Texas Oil Field at Longview, Texas, to Norris City, Illinois, and on to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, from where it branched into segments. One served New York and terminated at Linden, New Jersey, and the other served Philadelphia and terminated at Chester Junction, Pennsylvania. The Little Big Inch, a largely parallel line intended for refined products, ran from Beaumont, Texas, to Little Rock, Arkansas, where it joined the path of the Big Inch, making use of the same pumping stations. From there it ran along the same right-of-way as the Big Inch to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The pipeline project was the longest, biggest and heaviest of its kind in the world. In total, the Big Inch pipeline was long, with of secondary distribution and feeder lines, and had 28 pumping stations along the route, approximately every . The Little Big Inch was long, with of secondary lines, and had seven unique pumping stations along its southern leg. 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. Scherer. 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. 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. 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”. The pipelines were soon given the names "Big Inch" and "Little Big Inch" by the construction teams, on account of their unprecedented diameters. The construction project was extensively advertised, as part of the US government's war-time propaganda effort. Newsreels ran clips such as Pipeline Goes Through! and Pipe Dream Comes True-Oil!, and short-films were made about the construction work, including Pipeline. The pipelines also appeared in the RKO Pathé film Oil is Blood. Process The Big Inch pipeline was made from sections of seamless diameter steel pipe up to long, thick and in weight. The Little Big Inch used both thick seamless steel and electric