Introduction to the Port of Seattle
The Port of Seattle sits on the eastern shore of Puget Sound in western Washington State. As the second-largest container port in the country and the fourth-largest in North America, it is also the closest U.S. port to the Far East.
The Port of Seattle was established in 1852 and grew as the North Pacific Railroad was built and gold was discovered in Alaska. Today, it boasts strong transportation links and serves as a key hub for the North American Continental Bridge, connecting to New York in the east. Seattle is also known for its aerospace and aviation industries, including Boeing, the world’s largest aircraft maker.
Boeing leads the global aircraft and missile manufacturing sector, handling more than half of all aircraft orders and producing rockets and space launch vehicles. Major industries at the port include steel, aluminum, apparel, machinery, wood processing, shipbuilding, canned foods, and automobile assembly. The port is approximately 15 kilometers from the airport, which offers regular flights to destinations worldwide.
Port Equipment
The Port of Seattle utilizes a range of cargo handling equipment, including shore cranes, container gantry cranes, heavy-lift cranes, slewing cranes, tugboats, and roll-on/roll-off facilities. Container gantry cranes can lift up to 50 tons, and heavy-lift cranes can handle loads up to 200 tons. The port features open-air storage yards spanning 140,000 square meters, warehouse space accommodating 700,000 tons, and approximately 300,000 square meters of covered storage.
The container terminal spans an area of 1.4 million square meters. The largest terminal, Harper Island Terminal 18, has a water depth of 15 meters. Its rail yard allows containers to move directly from ships to double-stack trains, making transportation more efficient. The fully automated grain terminal can handle ships up to 200,000 tons and load or unload 3,500 tons per hour. The anchorage for large vessels is 36 meters deep. The port’s foreign trade zone, established in 1945, now spans 5.67 square kilometers.
Seattle Port Terminal
Pier 5, operated by Eagle Marine Services, offers quick and reliable cargo transport through its terminal railway. It has three berths, 600 refrigerated plugs, and six post-Panamax cranes. The intermodal yard includes six tracks and nearby warehouse storage. The main gate has 12 lanes. There is a 1.8-acre covered shed for trucks and a 1.1-acre area for maintenance and repair. Terminal 5 utilizes a real-time computer system equipped with equipment identification and GPS technology for efficient management.
SSA Marine operates Terminal 18, which has four berths, 1,227 refrigerated plugs, and 10 cranes. The intermodal yard can handle two full trains. Facilities include a 2.2-acre covered shed and a 2,782-square-meter area for container and chassis maintenance. Operations are managed by a real-time computer system.
SSA Marine runs Terminal 30, which has two separate berths and is less than two miles from BNSF and UP rail facilities. It offers 451 refrigerated plugs and features one super post-Panamax crane, as well as three additional cranes. The terminal provides maintenance, repair, and cleaning services for refrigerated containers and chassis. A real-time computer system manages vessel, gate, and rail operations. Terminal 30 is conveniently located near Interstates 90, 5, and 509.
Terminal 46 is operated by Total Terminals International (TTI) and features two operational berths, one available berth, 426 refrigerated container plugs, and five cranes. The intermodal yard can load two full trains. The 17-lane gate includes dedicated lanes for connections to nearby rail yards.
Beyond these container terminals, the Port of Seattle also has two terminals dedicated to bulk cargo and one grain terminal.
Terminal 115 is the main bulk and container terminal, handling barge operations and special projects. It is equipped with lift trucks, various forklifts, and crawler cranes.
Berth 91 provides short-term and long-term berthing for bulk refrigerated ships, roll-on/roll-off ships, and commercial workboats. Equipped with heavy-duty floating cranes, forklifts, and other equipment. On-site facilities provide marine fuel, fish processing, and cold storage. The terminal has rail connections to the adjacent BNSF mainline and shipyard, as well as direct access to the Union Pacific. It is also easily accessible from Interstate 5 and 90.
The Louis Dreyfus Company operates the Berth 86 grain facilities, which utilize fully automated systems to efficiently transfer grain from railcars and trucks through silos to ships.
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