Top Port Cities

[stefansanity]

You know what I think is really strange though is that Charleston SC used to be the largest and still is the oldest ports in America, so why is it not like other cities its more like slums now! What happened?!

[FLABoyJ]

Originally Posted by BPerone201

Houston, Louisiana, and Newark-Elizabeth are the busiest ports.

Thought Port Everglades was the busiest? Oh wait is the second busiest seaport. Your right though! I just looked up those three locations and indeed they are the busiest.

Port Canaveral is the second busiest cruise port in the world. I dont know how they measure how much a port is busier by.

[jman650]

Originally Posted by pittsteelers247

Not necessarily...Sure they are the busiest based on cargo tonnage, but there are other factors. Such as volume, amount of containers, traffic, etc.

True, and from that angle the top port cities are:

1. Los Angeles
2. Long Beach
3. Newark/NYC
4. Savannah
5. Oakland

List of busiest container ports - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[jknic]

Originally Posted by WestbankNOLA

I'm thinking:

South Louisiana (Greater New Orleans)
Houston
NYC
New Jersey
Beaumont or Port Arthur?
Los Angeles
New Orleans (city proper)
Baton Rouge
Mobile

The NYC ports merged with the ones in North Jersey for form the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which has nothing to do with the ports in Camden.

[PDX_LAX]

It seems to me that the best measure of a port's significance is to measure by total value of cargo. Any numbers for that criteria?

[Milwaukee City]

Louisiana, Long Beach, Houston and Port of NY/NJ are really the only true big ports the rest are peanuts compared to those I mentioned.

[Josseppie]

This is such a lame debate, just look up the offical stats.

[Akhenaton06]

Originally Posted by stefansanity

You know what I think is really strange though is that Charleston SC used to be the largest and still is the oldest ports in America, so why is it not like other cities its more like slums now! What happened?!

Charleston is "more like slums now"? Every city has its rough parts and Charleston is certainly no exception, but it's easily one of the most beautiful cities in the nation.

But as for why Charleston never really kept up with its historical peers, the Civil War/Reconstruction ravaged the local economy, you had the big earthquake of 1886 that nearly decimated the city, and more recently there was Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the closure of the naval base in 1996 which was a big economic blow to the city. Charleston didn't have the textile industry to help prop up its economy like other regions of SC and the piedmont of NC, which is why cities like Winston-Salem and Charlotte surpassed it in population in the early part of the 20th century. It wasn't really until the historic preservation movement started to really pay off under Joe Riley's leadership in the 70's and 80's that Charleston started to grow again. The city is poised for a mini-boom in the near future with recent economic developments like the new cruise line and the Boeing plant.