Within four days of the capture of the Straits of San Juanico, elements of the Army's 592d Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment of the 2d Engineer Special Brigade had set up ferry service. The crossing linked the road networks of Leyte and Samar Islands in the Philippines. The site is located some fourteen miles north of Tacloban, where General Douglas MacArthur made the radio broadcast that announced his return to the islands and the establishment of the Philippine civil government.