With the expanding merchant fleet during wartime came an increased need for trained seamen to man the ships. SCI’s Merchant Marine School had been in operation since World War I. With the increased demand the school expanded to the top floor of 25 South Street, creating classroom space to train more mariners for service. Most spectacularly, SCI started construction on its famous “flying bridge,” a pilothouse built atop the Institute’s 13-story headquarters. Constructed in October of 1942 at 212 feet above sea level, amid the peaks of Lower Manhattan’s skyscrapers, SCI’s Merchant Marine School used the flying bridge to train the city’s rapidly expanding merchant marine recruits. [see “SCI’s ‘Flying Bridge’” http://seamenschurch.org/article/sci%E2%80%99s-flying-bridge]