The Port of Tacoma is an independent

seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as ...

located in Tacoma,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. The port was created by a vote of Pierce County citizens on November 5, 1918. The ''Edmore'' was the first ship to call at the port in 1921. The port's marine cargo operations, among the largest in the United States, was merged with the

Port of Seattle The Port of Seattle is a government agency overseeing the Northwest Seaport Alliance, seaport and Seattle–Tacoma International Airport, airport of Seattle, Washington, United States. With a portfolio of properties ranging from parks and wa ...

's in 2015 to form the

Northwest Seaport Alliance The Northwest Seaport Alliance is a port authority based in the Puget Sound region of the United States, comprising the seaports of Seattle and Tacoma in Washington state. The combined port authority is the third largest cargo port in the Uni ...

History

The port started out on of land, and now owns more than 2,400 acres (972 hectares) of land that are used for shipping terminal activity, warehousing, distributing, and manufacturing.

Nineteenth Century

Prior to the establishment of the Port of Tacoma, much of Tacoma's shipping activity took place along Ruston Way and along the mouth of the

Thea Foss Waterway The Thea Foss Waterway, formerly the City Waterway, is a north–south inlet of Commencement Bay separating downtown Tacoma, Washington, from the Port of Tacoma. History The City Waterway was created in 1902 through a dredging operation propose ...

, which opens into

Commencement Bay Commencement Bay is a bay of Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington. The city of Tacoma is located on the bay, with the Port of Tacoma occupying the southeastern end. A line drawn from Point Defiance in the southwest to Browns Point in ...

and the larger

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected m ...

. Tacoma's role as a shipping center dates to 1853, when the first cargo of lumber was shipped to San Francisco. Tacoma's status as a major trading hub was greatly strengthened by the 1873 decision by the

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly of land grants, whi ...

to establish its western terminus at Commencement Bay. Tacoma was chosen over other nearby cities such as

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

for several reasons: Commencement Bay could dock more than 50 ships at a time, the harbor was deep enough for vessels of any draft, and there were miles of tideland waterfront available for expanded port facilities. Port of Tacoma 8276

Settlement with Puyallup Tribe

The United States Army Corps of Engineers straightened the Puyallup River between 1948 and 1950, leading to litigation in the early 1980s over ownership of 12 acres of land formerly in the riverbed. The Puyallup Indian Tribe won their case in federal court. Subsequently, The Puyallup Tribe of Indians Settlement Act of 1989 ceded the Tribe's remaining land claims over 120 acres of the Port of Tacoma, in exchange for $162 million and other benefits. The claims dated to the 1856 Medicine Creek Treaty and the Puyallup's 1856–1857 renegotiation of their reservation boundaries at Fox Island. The reservation still exists legally and includes at least the Port's land between Hylebos and Blair Waterways and the entire city of

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

Northwest Seaport Alliance

On October 7, 2014, the

and Port of Tacoma announced an agreement to "jointly market and operate the marine terminals of both ports as a single entity," though they were not merging. Joint operations began with the formation of the

on August 4, 2015, creating the third-largest cargo gateway in the United States; by the end of the year, it reported more than 3.5 million

twenty-foot equivalent unit The twenty-foot equivalent unit (abbreviated TEU or teu) is an inexact unit of cargo capacity, often used for container ships and container ports.Rowlett, 2004. It is based on the volume of a intermodal container, a standard-sized metal box whi ...

s handled by the two ports, an increase of 4 percent.

Operations

The port plays a large

international trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (see: World economy) In most countries, such trade represents a significa ...

role in the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Thou ...

, and is a municipal

corporation A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and ...

that operates under state-enabling legislation. Each year, the port handles between about 9 and 13 million tons of cargo, and more than $25 billion of commerce. Major imports include automobiles, electronics, and toys, while major exports include grain, forest products, and agricultural products. Based on tonnage, the port's largest export is grain (corn and soybeans) that come into the port by rail from the Midwest. In 2010, the Port of Tacoma's top trading partner, based on two-way trade value, was

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

. China/Hong Kong was also the top partner ranked by volume imported and value imported.

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

was the top partner ranked by volume exported and value exported. The top commodities exported, by value, were cereals and grains. The top commodities imported, by value, were vehicles and parts, followed by industrial machinery and electronics. The port is among the top ten largest container ports in North America. Containers hold everything from computers and lawn furniture to apples and frozen meat. Based on container volumes, China is the port's largest trading partner. More than 70 percent of the containers imported through the port move by rail to markets in the Midwest and East Coast. The port is served by the

BNSF Railway BNSF Railway is one of the largest freight railroads in North America. One of seven North American Class I railroads, BNSF has 35,000 employees, of track in 28 states, and nearly 8,000 locomotives. It has three transcontinental routes that ...

and

Union Pacific The Union Pacific Railroad , legally Union Pacific Railroad Company and often called simply Union Pacific, is a freight-hauling railroad that operates 8,300 locomotives over routes in 23 U.S. states west of Chicago and New Orleans. Union Pac ...

railroads. Shortline rail service is provided by

Tacoma Rail Tacoma Rail is a publicly owned Class III shortline railroad. It is owned by the city of Tacoma, Washington and operated as a public utility. It is one of three operating divisions of the municipally-owned Tacoma Public Utilities service, but u ...

, which is owned by the City of Tacoma. U.S. Oil and Refining operates an

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liq ...

in the Port of Tacoma.

Oil tanker An oil tanker, also known as a petroleum tanker, is a ship designed for the bulk transport of oil or its products. There are two basic types of oil tankers: crude tankers and product tankers. Crude tankers move large quantities of unrefined ...

s bring

crude oil Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude ...

, which is refined into a variety of products, including

JP-8 JP-8, or JP8 (for "Jet Propellant 8") is a jet fuel, specified and used widely by the US military. It is specified by MIL-DTL-83133 and British Defence Standard 91-87, and similar to commercial aviation's Jet A-1, but with the addition of corrosi ...

jet fuel Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial a ...

for

McChord Field McChord Field is a United States Air Force base in the northwest United States, in Pierce County, Washington. South of Tacoma, McChord Field is the home of the 62d Airlift Wing, Air Mobility Command, the field's primary mission being worldw ...

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

base. The refinery and airbase are connected by a dedicated pipeline, McChord Pipeline.

Pollution

The port is part of one of the largest

superfund Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency ...

federal environmental remediation sites in Washington, the Commencement Bay Nearshore/Tideflats Site. The Port of Tacoma has been working with the

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it ...

(EPA) and the

Washington State Department of Ecology The Washington State Department of Ecology (sometimes referred to simply as "Ecology") is the state of Washington's environmental regulatory agency. Created in February 1970, it was the first environmental regulation agency in the U.S. predating t ...

on cleanup efforts at various sites within the larger superfund area.

Facts

* Port activities are related to more than 43,000 jobs in Pierce County, and 113,000 jobs in Washington state. * There are more than 70 public ports in the state of Washington. * The port is sometimes called the "Gateway to Alaska", handling more than 70 percent of all waterborne commerce moving from the Lower 48 to Alaska by water. * Over the last 20 years, the port has invested more than $160 million in projects designed to improve the environment in and around Commencement Bay.

References

External links

Port of Tacoma website
{{Authority control Tacoma Economy of Tacoma, Washington Geography of Tacoma, Washington Container terminals Geography of Pierce County, Washington Transportation buildings and structures in Pierce County, Washington Puyallup Indian Reservation