Editing Port of Seattle (section)

==History==
{{See also|Seattle Fishermen halibut strike of 1912}}
Over the course of more than a century, the Port of Seattle has provided facilities for an expansion of Seattle's shipping trade, later including [[container shipping]] and the [[Seattle–Tacoma International Airport]], and helped to generate increasing economic activity in the area. Although the [[Second World War]] halted much of the global shipping trade and negatively impacted the economy, Seattle again became a major port after the war.

===Creation===
At the time of the creation of the Port of Seattle as an institution, Seattle was already a major port. However, its [[Central Waterfront, Seattle|Central Waterfront]] was somewhat chaotic, due in part to having eight (and in some places nine) more or less parallel railroad tracks along the ill-maintained wooden planking of Railroad Avenue.<ref name=Oldham-10>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=10}}</ref> Although the 1903-1906 construction of the Great Northern Tunnel through downtown had alleviated some of the chaos because trains that were merely passing through no longer needed to use the waterfront route,<ref name=Dorpat-6>Paul Dorpat, [https://historyink.com/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=2476 Seattle Central Waterfront Tour, Part 6: From Railroad Avenue to Alaskan Way] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711171825/https://historyink.com/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=2476 |date=2011-07-11 }}, HistoryLink, May 24, 2000. Accessed online 20 October 2008.</ref> it did not change the basic fact that this "avenue" along the Central Waterfront was {{convert|150|ft|m}} wide, built over water, difficult to traverse, and separated Downtown from the piers. To further complicate matters, tracks were owned by three separate private corporations, the [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]], the [[Northern Pacific Railroad]], and the [[Pacific Coast Steamship Company|Pacific Coast Company]],<ref name=Oldham-10 /> which operated the [[Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Best |first1=George W. |title=Ships and Narrow Gauge Rails -- The Story of the Pacific Coast Company |date=1964 |publisher=Howell-North |location=Berkeley, California |page=101}}</ref>

Furthermore, the railroad companies owned the piers and warehouses where the rails and ships came together, inevitably creating an anti-competitive effect for other businesses wishing to ship through Seattle.<ref name=Oldham-10 />

As early as 1890, [[Virgil Bogue]] had proposed public ownership not only of the Seattle port, but of all ports in the then newly formed state.<ref name="Oldham-17"/> As part of gaining statehood, [[Washington (state)|Washington]] had gained control over its own coastal waters, previously under direct federal control. Initially, it looked like Bogue might prevail, at least with respect to Seattle, but [[Thomas Burke (railroad builder)|Thomas Burke]] and others representing the railroad interests managed to stall the initial Harbor Lines Commission plan into oblivion through a series of legal actions.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=20}}</ref> Still, Bogue continued to win allies among populists, progressives, the labor movement, and even some of the railroads (though not the Great Northern). Among the more prominent allies were City Engineer [[Reginald H. Thomson]] and his one-time assistant [[George F. Cotterill]]. Cotterill went on to serve as a [[Washington State Senate|state senator]] and later as mayor of Seattle. Even before the Port was established, the latter two scored several victories simply by devising plans (a tunnel through Downtown; a uniform alignment of piers) that made enough sense that the railroads and others adopted them more or less voluntarily. Additionally, Cotterill as a state senator led a state-level effort to authorize port districts, though he was out of office by the time it came to fruition.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|pp=20–23}}</ref>

In 1910, pressure toward public ownership of port facilities increased when [[Tacoma, Washington]] began building the state's first municipally owned dock.<ref name=Oldham-24>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=24}}</ref> Even ''[[The Seattle Times]]'', normally opposed to municipal ownership, began to advocate for similar measures in Seattle.<ref name=Oldham-24 /> On March 14, 1911, the [[Port District Act]] became state law, allowing the formation of port districts.<ref name=Oldham-24 />

The Port of Seattle was created by the state of Washington in 1911. Under the Port District Act, the port's construction plan had to be presented and voted upon before construction could start. One of the biggest factors that swayed the votes in favor of creating the port was the prospect of economic growth,<ref name=oldham>Oldham Kit. "Port of Seattle's Commissioners Meet for the First Time September 12, 1911". Historylink.org essay 9726. February 16, 2011.</ref> especially given the impending 1914 completion of the [[Panama Canal]].<ref name=Oldham-10 /> The first Commission Report for 1912 records that: "The Port of Seattle came into existence on September 5, 1911, by a vote of the people of the Port District held on that date in accordance with the Port District Act of March 14, 1911.  The work of the commission for the first six months was confined almost entirely to the preparation of projects which were duly approved by the people at a special election held on March 5, 1912."

===Early development===
From the first, the Port of Seattle was faced with the fact that most of the key properties on the Central Waterfront on [[Elliott Bay]] were already in the hands of the railroads and other vested interests. This meant that most Port-owned facilities would be in more peripheral areas: to the south, the newly dredged East Waterway of the [[Duwamish River|Duwamish]] between the newly filled mainland [[Industrial District, Seattle|Industrial District]] and the newly created [[Harbor Island, Seattle|Harbor Island]]; to the north, where the Great Northern Railway occupied only part of [[Smith Cove (Seattle)|Smith Cove]]; and {{convert|6|mi|km}} north in [[Ballard, Seattle|Ballard]], newly annexed to Seattle, where [[Salmon Bay]] would form the outlet of the new [[Lake Washington Ship Canal]] connecting [[Lake Washington]] and [[Lake Union]] to salt water.<ref name=Oldham-27>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=27}}</ref>

The Port commissioned the first automobile ferry in Western Washington, ''[[Leschi (steam ferry)|Leschi]]'', which launched December 6, 1913.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|pp=31, 34}}</ref> The ''Leschi'' operated on [[Lake Washington]], providing service from [[Leschi Park]] to two locations on the east side of the lake.<ref>{{cite web |title=Leschi Ferry photograph album, 1913 |url=https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv31130 |website=Archives West |access-date=2023-02-13}}</ref> Earlier that year, Port construction began with the creation of a home port for Puget Sound fishermen; [[Fishermen's Terminal]] on Salmon Bay was completed in 1914 and has been the U.S. Northern Pacific Fishing Fleet's home for operations, provisioning and repairs ever since.<ref name=Oldham-31>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=31}}</ref> Work also began that year on a grain terminal at South Hanford Street on the East Waterway, intended to give Washington growers an alternative to shipping their grain down the [[Columbia River]] to [[Portland, Oregon]].<ref name=Oldham-34>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=34}}</ref>

Another project begun in 1913, the Bell Street Terminal, the Port's new headquarters near the north end of the Central Waterfront, loaded its first cargo October 28, 1913 while the warehouse facilities were still under construction,<ref name=Oldham-31 /> and by 1914 served much of the [[Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet]] and provided easy access for farmers around Puget Sound to bring their produce to [[Pike Place Market]].<ref name=Oldham-27/><ref name=Oldham-17>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=17}}</ref> A viaduct to Pike Place Market<ref name=Oldham-31 /> and a rooftop park, solarium, and pool were added in 1915.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pcad.lib.washington.edu/building/9164/|title=Port of Seattle, Pier 66, Bell Street Wharf, Waterfront, Seattle, WA (1914)|publisher=PCAD (Pacific Coast Architecture Database)|access-date=August 12, 2019}}</ref><ref name=Oldham-29>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=29}}</ref> "but by the 1920s, the park had developed an unsavory reputation and was closed."<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/Neighborhoods/HistoricPreservation/HistoricResourcesSurvey/context-waterfront.pdf
|title=Context Statement: The Central Waterfront
|vauthors=((Thomas Street History Services))
|publisher=Seattle Department of Neighborhoods
|access-date=August 15, 2019
|page=36
|date=November 2006
}} Updated January 2007.</ref>

Other early Port projects included cold storage facilities at Bell Street Terminal for local fishermen and on the East Waterway at South Spokane Street for Eastern Washington farmers,<ref name=Oldham-34 /> as well as two massive piers at Smith Cove. Pier A, later Pier 40 and (since 1944) Pier 90 was {{convert|2530|ft|m}} long and {{convert|310|ft|m}} wide. It was the largest pier in the world until the construction of Pier B, later Pier 41 and (since 1944) Pier 91, {{convert|50|ft|m}} longer.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=32}}</ref>

===Stagnation in the 1920s and 1930s===
A more conservative Port Commission in the 1920s largely put an end to new initiatives of this sort. Trade continued to grow slowly, with an emphasis on China and (especially) Japan, but other West Coast and Gulf Coast ports increasingly copied Seattle's initiatives of the prior decade, and the [[Port of Tacoma]] in particular undercut Seattle on prices. A price war through the 1920s resulted in a 1929 agreement through the [[American Association of Port Authorities]] to set uniform wharf rates.<ref name="Oldham, Blecha 2011 p.38-39">{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|pp=38–39}}</ref>

Seattle and the state of Washington were not well-positioned coming into the [[Great Depression]] that began in 1929. Due to over-fishing and excessive logging, the natural resources that had provided much of the basis for the local economy were being depleted. The salmon catch was down below a tenth of what it had been in the peak year, 1913, and timber production was also significantly down even before the national economy began to tumble.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=42}}</ref> By October 1931, low-rent housing in Seattle was oversaturated, and a [[Hooverville]] began to form in the abandoned Skinner & Eddy land along Elliott Bay, site of present-day (2023) Terminal 46. In its first few months it was twice removed by Seattle Police 
"sweeps," but eventually a compromise was reached that allowed a shantytown to persist for almost a decade.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|pp=42–43}}</ref>

===World War II and after===
The economic depression and labor troubles of the 1930s (see following section ''[[#Politics and the Port|Politics and the Port]]'') were followed by the wartime economy of [[World War II]]. Even before the U.S. entered the war, export of scrap metal to Japan, of course, went to zero, and export of Eastern Washington apples to Europe fared little better, but with the Soviet Union newly an ally, Seattle became a base for trans-oceanic shipping to [[Siberia]]. The [[Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation]] (Todd Pacific) on Harbor Island scored contracts to build 45 [[destroyer]]s, which put it in a tie with [[Union Iron Works|Bethlehem Steel San Francisco]] for largest purely military ship production on the U.S. West Coast. The U.S. Navy took over the massive Smith Cove piers. The state legislature granted the Port of Seattle and other port authorities around the state exceptional powers to pursue defense-related projects without requiring the public to vote on the bond issues, which enabled the port to purchase additional land on the Harbor Island side of the East Waterway and to pursue major projects on the mainland side: Pier 42 (now part of Terminal 46), with its pilings as high as {{convert|70|ft|m}}, and a new grain elevator at South Hanford Street.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|pp=51–52}}</ref>

U.S. entry into the war brought on further changes: effectively, the entire harbor on Elliott Bay became a U.S. military port for the duration. The [[Pacific Steamship Company]] piers south of Downtown were reworked into a Port of Embarkation (part of which now constitutes [[Coast Guard Station Seattle]], the rest of which is part of Terminal 46).<ref name=Oldham-52>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=52}}</ref> One of the longest-lasting legacies of the war years was the comprehensive May 1, 1944 renumbering of all of Seattle's Elliott Bay piers into a single system encompassing the bay.<ref name=Oldham-52 /><ref name="rename-1944">{{Historylink|title = Seattle docks and piers are given new designations on May 1, 1944 | article = 9967 | author = Daryl C. McClary | date = November 26, 2011 | access-date = February 14, 2023}}</ref>

While the War years were a boom time for Seattle and its port, the immediate postwar years were not. Wartime production had made Seattle-based [[Boeing]] the region's largest employer; peace resulted in 70,000 Boeing layoffs.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=55}}</ref> Nor did Seattle's port get its expected share of post-war commercial shipping traffic: for the first time ever, it was outdone even by its neighbor to the south, the far smaller city of Tacoma.<ref name=Oldham-56>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=56}}</ref> While the Port of Seattle had launched what was to prove a very successful airport, wartime use of the Elliott Bay and Duwamish River waterfront had not established a particularly good basis for a peacetime port. When the military's new piers reverted to civilian use, they took business away from existing older facilities and, consequently, away from the heart of town. Further, it had been over a decade since the Port had run a major national and international publicity campaign.<ref name=Oldham-56 /><ref name=Oldham-44-45 /> And there were labor troubles (see following section ''[[#Politics and the Port|Politics and the Port]]'').

The Port was not entirely without a strategy. On the shore of the area around [[Pioneer Square, Seattle|Pioneer Square]] and immediately south, they purchased  and modernized Piers 43 and 45 through 49 from the Pacific Coast Company<ref name=Oldham-59>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=59}}</ref> Piers 43, 45, 46, and 47 were eventually incorporated into present-day Terminal 46.<ref name=Oldham-59 /> Fishermen's Terminal at Salmon Bay was enlarged and upgraded,<ref name=Oldham-59 /> as was the East Waterway Dock on Harbor Island.<ref name=Oldham-59 /> Still, they failed to support Eastern Washington farmers with a modern grain terminal, and that trade was lost, for the time, to Portland and Tacoma.<ref name=Oldham-59 />

In 1949 the U.S. Department of Commerce designated a [[Foreign-trade zones of the United States|foreign-trade zone]] (FTZ) on Harbor Island.<ref name=Oldham-59 /><ref name=US-ITA>{{cite web |url=http://enforcement.trade.gov/ftzpage/orders/ftzorder.html |title=U.S. Foreign-Trade Zones Board Order Summary |publisher= U.S. Department of Commerce, [[International Trade Administration]] |access-date=September 16, 2016 }}</ref> At the urging of the local business community, the Port invested heavily in gaining this designation and in building the facility, but it almost certainly turned out to be a money-loser over the next few decades.<ref name=Oldham-59 /> FTZ status was vastly expanded in 1989, encompassing virtually all of the Port's seaport and airport acreage, a much better proposition than the single small facility.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=92}}</ref>

===The Fifties===
By 1952, it was clear that Seattle's maritime sector had not made a post-war recovery commensurate with other U.S. ports.<ref name=Oldham-61>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=61}}</ref> Many companies were wary of doing business in Seattle in the wake of the 1948 strike<ref name=Oldham-56 /> (see section ''[[#Politics and the Port|Politics and the Port]]'' below); a further strike in 1952<ref name=Oldham-61 /> and conflicts within the Port Commission and between the Port Commission and Port management<ref name=Oldham-61 /> certainly did not alleviate these concerns. Things finally began to turn around, or at least level out, in late summer of 1953, when Howard M. Burke was hired away from his position as Seattle-based district manager at the [[American Hawaiian Steamship Company]] to be the new general manager of the Port.<ref name=Oldham-61 /> He emerged as the effective leader of the Port<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|pp=61, 66}}</ref> with projects such as expanding the grain terminal at South Hanford Street, building the massive [[Shilshole Bay Marina]] in [[Ballard, Seattle|Ballard]], purchasing the Ames Terminal (which became Terminal 5) in [[West Seattle, Seattle|West Seattle]] on the West Waterway of the Duwamish, and purchasing Pier 28 from the [[Milwaukee Road]], which filled in a gap in Port-owned land on the mainland side of the East Waterway and paved the way for modernization of that portion of the waterfront.<ref name=Oldham-66>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=66}}</ref> By 1956, foreign commerce shipping tonnage had recovered to levels not seen since the 1920s.<ref name=Oldham-66 /> A further proposal to dredge a {{convert|350|ft|m|adj=on}} wide, {{convert|4|mi|km|adj=on}} channel up the Duwamish River failed to come to fruition due to numerous lawsuits and the annexation of some of the relevant area by [[Tukwila, Washington]], a south-side suburb.<ref name=Oldham-66 />

Despite Burke's best efforts, federal changes that introduced a sliding scale to maritime shipping rates in the early 1950s had taken away much of the historic value of Seattle's being the closest major U.S. port to Asia.<ref name="Oldham-60"/> In 1954, this rate differential had helped San Francisco to outstrip Seattle even in shipping Eastern Washington apples, shipping 78,000 boxes to Seattle's 5,480.<ref name=Oldham-66 /> The decade saw a series of reports highly critical of the Port, including two that the Port itself commissioned, one from the University of Washington's Bureau of Business Research in 1956, and another from [[Booz Allen Hamilton]] in 1958<ref name=Oldham-67>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=67}}</ref> A 1959 [[KIRO-TV]] documentary ''Lost Cargo'' put the matter squarely before the public,<ref name=Oldham-67 /> In a city nearly half of whose [[GDP]] came from harbor-related activities, and where the Port controlled 21 of the city's 88 piers and terminals, this was no small thing.<ref name=Oldham-66 /> A pair of 1960 ballot measures passed by broad margins. One expanded the Port Commission from three members to five, with the two new members elected [[At-large|at large]] rather than on the longstanding three-district basis. The other allocated US$10 million in bonds to fund modernization.<ref name=Oldham-67 /> The state government followed this up in 1961 by giving the Port expanded taxing authority, while also following a Booz Allen recommendation to get the Commission out of day-to-day operations, instead establishing separate, professionally-run departments for Planning and Research, Data Processing, Real Estate, Trade Development, and Public Relations.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|pp=69–70}}</ref>

=== Containerization ===
[[File:Port of seattle.jpg|thumb|right|A container ship and the [[Bainbridge Island]] ferry near Terminal 46]]
[[File:East Waterway of the Duwamish 01.jpg|thumb|right|Container cranes on both sides of the East Duwamish Waterway]]
[[File:Seattle-Smith-Cove-grain-terminal-2395.jpg|thumb|right|A ship at Pier 86 Grain Terminal]]
[[File:Pier 86 Grain Terminal Seattle waterfront Seattle Washington.JPG|thumb|right|Ship ''Angela'' from [[Panama]] taking on grain at Pier 86 Grain Terminal]]
The 1960 [[Mechanization and Modernization Agreement 1960|Mechanization and Modernization Agreement]] (M&M) put the ports and labor unions of the West Coast of North America, including Seattle, firmly on the path away from [[break-bulk]] cargo toward [[containerization]].<ref name=Oldham-70>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=70}}</ref> [[Alaska Steamship Company]] had experimented with containerization as early as 1949,<ref name=Oldham-71>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=71}}</ref> and [[SeaLand|Sea-Land]] had begun the move toward international standardization when it shared its patents in 1956,<ref name=Oldham-71 /> but the unions had initially opposed moving in this direction because of the inevitable loss in jobs from what was, as much as anything, a labor-saving technology.<ref name=Oldham-70 /> With the benefits offered in the M&M bringing the unions largely on board, the path was clear. Precisely because the Port of Seattle was doing poorly coming into this era, it had more reason than most to make a full-scale embrace of the new technology. In contrast, in particular, to Portland, the Port threw in its lot heavily for the new technology.<ref name=Oldham-73>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=73}}</ref>

In the summer of 1962, with the world's eyes on Seattle as host of the [[Century 21 Exposition]] (a World's Fair), the Port announced a US$30 million plan to build a major new container port on the Duwamish Waterway.<ref name=Oldham-73 /> They also "undert[ook] a six-year program to develop marginal lands and sell them to private industry" to expand the Seattle economy.<ref name=Oldham-73 /> Two years later, Sea-Land chose the Port's new Terminal 5 (on the site of the former Ames Terminal<ref name=Oldham-66 />) as its West Coast headquarters.<ref name=Oldham-73 /> By the end of the 1960s, Seattle was the West Coast's second-busiest port.<ref name=Oldham-73 /> When Seattle's economy was slammed by the [[History of Seattle#The Boeing Bust|Boeing Bust]] around the turn of the decade, the previously moribund port was one of its few bright lights.<ref name=Oldham-76-77>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|pp=76–77}}</ref> The Port ended up buying the {{convert|25|acre|hectare|adj=on}} [[Boeing Plant 1]] site along the Duwamish, which was developed into another modern container facility, Terminal 115,<ref name=Oldham-76-77 /><ref>Carter, Glen. "Port Finds More Land". '' The Seattle Times'', December 11, 1970, Section E.</ref> as was the old grain elevator site at South Hanford Street.<ref name=Oldham-76-77 /> That grain elevator was effectively replaced by the new Pier 86 Grain Terminal at the foot of Queen Anne Hill southeast of Smith Cove.<ref name=Oldham-79>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=79}}</ref>

===Continued growth===
Naturally, advantages were not always on Seattle's side. For example, Totem Ocean Trailer Express (now [[TOTE Maritime|TOTE Group]]), founded in 1975,<ref>{{cite web |title=About |url=https://www.totegroup.com/about |website=TOTE Group |access-date=2023-02-16}}</ref> opted to base its shipments to Alaska out of Tacoma, where land was cheaper and room for expansion less likely to be an issue.<ref name=Oldham-80>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=80}}</ref> 1975 also was the end of many decades of  weekly [[Chiquita|United Brands]] banana-boat arrivals in Seattle: since then, bananas have arrived in Seattle by rail or truck.<ref name=Oldham-81>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=81}}</ref> And for cargoes coming ''into'' the U.S. from East Asia, Seattle, in the relatively sparsely populated [[Pacific Northwest]] would always have a disadvantage in competing with the [[Port of Long Beach]] and [[Port of Los Angeles|of Los Angeles]] in populous [[Southern California]].<ref name=Oldham-82>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=82}}</ref>

But, in general, the Port continued to expand. The TOTE loss spurred the Port to acquire and stockpile more land along the Duwamish.<ref name=Oldham-80 /> The Port built a container facility at Terminal 25 for [[American President Lines]] (APL),<ref name=Oldham-80 /> and an assembly facility for foreign cars at Terminal 115.<ref name=Oldham-80 /> Terminal 28 (later incorporated into Terminal 30) was expanded by {{convert|8.5|acre|ha}} for [[Nissan Group|Nissan]],<ref name=Oldham-80 /> and Seattle became a major port of entry for [[Datsun]] vehicles.<ref name=Oldham-81 /> In 1976, the Port reacquired Piers 90 and 91 at Smith Cove from the Navy<ref name=Oldham-81 /> and focused them, at least initially, on Asian trade.<ref name=Oldham-82 /> In April 1979, [[COSCO]]'s ''Liu Lin Hai'' docked at Pier 91, then proceeded to Terminal 86 to take on a cargo of American grain bound for China, thereby becoming the first ship from the [[People's Republic of China]] ever to visit a U.S. port.<ref name=Oldham-82 /> Years later, the Port invested in a major cold storage facility and Pier 91, which paid off handsomely when Japan dropped a 1971 ban on fruit imports from Washington. Pier 91 became the chief export point for Washington apples to Japan.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=93}}</ref>

The Port further expanded in the 1980s, with the growth of the China trade and the Port's increased capacity for [[Intermodal freight transport|intermodal transport]], with containers transferring between ships and trucks, but especially between ships and rail.<ref name=Oldham-89>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=89}}</ref> Although some carriers shifted operations from Seattle to Tacoma,<ref name=Oldham-88 /> this was more than compensated by acquisition of new business and the growth of shipping by some of the carriers who remained.<ref name=Oldham-89 /> Among the new arrivals: toy company [[Hasbro]] made Seattle's expanded Terminal 106 its national distribution center and its sole port of entry for container shipments from Asia, and the Port played a large part in [[Nintendo#Nintendo of America|Nintendo of America]]'s move from New York City to [[Redmond, Washington|Redmond]], an [[Eastside (King County, Washington)|Eastside]] suburb of Seattle.<ref name=Oldham-89 />

In its early years, the Port had to contend with the fact that the most desirable properties on the [[Central Waterfront, Seattle|Central Waterfront]] were already occupied by piers, mostly in the hands of the railroads.<ref name=Oldham-27 /> 70 years later, with the Port's container facilities now completely dominating Seattle's maritime trade, they were confronted with the opposite problem: much of the Central Waterfront, especially the portion north of Pier 59 (the [[Seattle Aquarium]] since 1977<ref>{{cite web |last=McRoberts |first=Patrick |date=January 1, 1999 |title=Seattle Aquarium opens to excited crowds on May 20, 1977. |url=https://www.historylink.org/File/2178 |work=HistoryLink |access-date=February 17, 2023}}</ref>) had fallen into dereliction.<ref name=Oldham-94>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=94}}</ref> The Port took a leading role in trying to remedy this, with Pat Davis and Paige Miller, the first two women on the Port Commission, taking a particularly large role.<ref name=Oldham-94 />

One of the deteriorating properties in question was the Port's own headquarters at the Bell Street Pier (renumbered as Pier 66 in 1944). The Port acquired nearby Pier 69, built in 1900 for the [[Roslyn, Washington|Roslyn]] Coal & Coke Company and used for many decades by the [[American Can Company]]. They refurbished that building<ref name=Oldham-94-95>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=94-95}}</ref> and in 1993 moved into it as their new headquarters.<ref name=Oldham-94-95 /><ref>{{Historylink |title = Seattle Central Waterfront, Part 10: Jogging From the Edgewater to Myrtle Edwards Park, Piers 67 through 70 |article = 2480 |author = [[Paul Dorpat]] |date = 2000-05-24 |access-date = 2023-02-17}}</ref> (Pier 69 is also the Seattle terminal for [[Clipper Navigation]]'s Victoria Clipper hydrofoil service.<ref name=Oldham-94-95 />) This move freed up Pier 66, which was demolished along with the Lenora Street Docks (Piers 64 and 65) to make way for the present-day Pier 66/Bell Street Pier, completed in 1996.<ref name=Oldham-95>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=95}}</ref> That pier includes extensive public space, including (as had been briefly the case in the 1910s) a rooftop park.<ref name=Oldham-95 /> Bell Street Pier also includes the Bell Harbor International Conference Center;{{cite web| url=https://www.portseattle.org/places/bell-harbor-international-conference-center|title=Bell Harbor International Conference Center| publisher=Port of Seattle |access-date=2022-02-17}} across the street is Seattle's World Trade Center, completed 1998.<ref>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=97}}</ref>

=== Into the 21st Century ===
[[File:View of restaurant cafe along the waterfront Seattle Washington.JPG|thumb|right|View of restaurant cafe and adjacent marina at Bell Harbor Marina (at the new Bell Street Terminal) along Alaskan Way, Seattle waterfront]]
[[File:Rhapsody of the Seas01.JPG|thumb|right|[[Royal Caribbean International|Royal Caribbean]] cruise ship ''Rhapsody of the Seas'' at Smith Cove Cruise Terminal, Pier 91. Pier 86 Grain Terminal in foreground. The privately owned [[Elliott Bay Marina]] in background.]]
The Bell Street Pier Cruise Terminal opened in 2000, bringing heavy cruise ships to Seattle for the first time in decades, with Seattle as home port for ships from [[Norwegian Cruise Line]] and [[Royal Caribbean International]]. A second portion of the terminal opened the following year, and by 2003 [[Holland America Line]] and [[Princess Cruises]] were running cruises to Alaska from a temporary cruise berths at Terminal 30. It was estimated in 2011 that each home port ship call puts US$2 million into the Seattle economy.<ref name=Oldham-98>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=98}}</ref> However, there are significant adverse environmental effects. These have been somewhat, though not entirely, mitigated by a ban on discharge of untreated sewage by cruise ships, and by an arrangement with [[Seattle City Light]] to provide shore power to the ships so that they do not need to run their engines while in port.<ref name=Oldham-99>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=99}}</ref> The Smith Cove Cruise Terminal opened at Pier 91 in 2009, providing Holland America Line and Princess Cruises with a more permanent Seattle facility; Terminal 30 reverted to use as a container terminal as a part of an expanded Terminal 28.<ref name=Oldham-107>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=107}}</ref>

In the wake of the [[September 11 attacks]], security became a major priority. Besides the well-known measures at airports, there was also a major increase in seaport security, though it remains the case that the vast majority of containers ship without their contents ever being inspected.<ref name=Oldham-98 />

Another round of West Coast maritime labor disputes in September 2022 ultimately worked in Seattle and Tacoma's favor, when they cleared their backups from the strike much more rapidly than the Southern California ports. Some of the shipping traffic that was diverted to the Puget Sound ports at that time led to continued business in the years after.<ref name=Oldham-99 /> In the first decade of the 21st Century, the Port of Seattle had several record-setting years for both container traffic and grain shipments. As of 2008, the grain terminal at Pier 86 handled 6.4 million metric tons of grain, mostly from the [[Midwestern United States|American Midwest]],<ref name=Oldham-99 /> although this number decreased in [[Great Recession|the following recession]].<ref name=Oldham-107 />

In 2007, Tay Yoshitani joined the organization as CEO.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.portseattle.org/About/Organization/Executives/Pages/Tay-Yoshitani.aspx|title=Tay Yoshitani|website=Port of Seattle|access-date=July 16, 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209144730/http://www.portseattle.org/About/Organization/Executives/Pages/Tay-Yoshitani.aspx|archive-date=February 9, 2013}}</ref> Soon after the start of his tenure, major scandals broke about the Port. It came out that there had been a significant problem with racist and pornographic emails among the Port of Seattle police, and the Port Commissioners declared that a prior investigation had been "poorly conducted on all levels."<ref>{{cite news |last1=Orsini-Meinhard |first1=Kirsten |title=Port's investigation of its police officers' e-porn called flawed |url=https://infoweb-newsbank-com.ezproxy.spl.org/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&t=favorite%3ASEATTLE!Seattle%2BTimes%2BCollection%2Bwith%2BHistorical%2BArchives&fld-base-0=alltext&docref=news/119840D44D67DE98 |access-date=2023-02-16 |work=Seattle Times |date=2007-06-01 |page=B2}} {{Subscription required}}</ref> After hiring a new chief of the port police,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.portseattle.org/About/Organization/Executives/Pages/Colleen-Wilson.aspx|title=Colleen Wilson|website=Port of Seattle|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209144727/http://www.portseattle.org/About/Organization/Executives/Pages/Colleen-Wilson.aspx|archive-date=February 9, 2013|url-status=dead|access-date=July 7, 2016}}</ref> the organization began to regain its footing, only to be thrust in the spotlight again when former CEO Mic Dinsmore claimed that a sizable severance had been authorized by the commission. The organization refused to pay and the claim was dropped, though the situation led to an attempted recall of one commissioner.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003767338_port29m.html|title=Report cites Port mistakes|work=The Seattle Times}}</ref> In December that year, the State Auditor's Office issued a report critical of the Port's contracting practices (particularly those related to construction of the third runway).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004084390_webaudit21m.html|title=State audit blasts Port of Seattle|work=The Seattle Times}}</ref> The audit report sparked an investigation by the [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]], but the investigation was closed without action.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010868474_port23m.html|title=Investigation of Port of Seattle fraud ends without indictments|work=The Seattle Times}}</ref>

Newly elected commissioners and CEO Yoshitani implemented a series of reforms, including increased commission oversight of port construction projects and consolidation of the organization's procurement activities into one division to afford better control.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} Yoshitani also increased commitment to environmental practices.<ref name=Oldham-104>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=104}}</ref> The port has many environmental programs, including shore power for cruise ships and a plan to clean up the Lower Duwamish Waterway (in partnership with Boeing, King County, and the City of Seattle).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.portseattle.org/Environmental/Pages/default.aspx|title=Environmental|work=portseattle.org|access-date=October 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924080252/http://www.portseattle.org/Environmental/Pages/default.aspx|archive-date=September 24, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Ports of Seattle and Tacoma have been able to turn certain environmental concerns to their advantage, as a 2009 study that the Port commissioned from Herbert Engineering showed a significantly lower [[carbon footprint]] for shipping from Asia through Puget Sound and then by rail to the Midwest than for shipping to other West Coast ports or through the Panama Canal.<ref name=Oldham-104 /> However, increased container and cruise traffic has increased community concerns, just as the new runway did.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}}

In 2012, port commissioners began outreach on the Century Agenda,<ref name="CenturyAgenda">{{cite web|url=https://www.portseattle.org/About/Commission/Pages/Century-Agenda.aspx|title=Century Agenda|work=portseattle.org|access-date=October 18, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151013222010/https://www.portseattle.org/About/Commission/Pages/Century-Agenda.aspx|archive-date=October 13, 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> a strategic plan for the port's next 25 years.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/jontalton/2017225591_biztaltoncol15.html|title=Port of Seattle prepares for stormy sailing in 25-year plan|work=The Seattle Times}}</ref> That same year, the Port became one of the most vocal opponents of the [[Sonics Arena Proposal|proposal to build a new arena]] in the Stadium District,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.seattle.gov/dPd/cityplanning/completeprojectslist/stadiumstudy/WhatWhy/default.htm|title=Stadium District Study – What & Why |publisher=Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development|website=www.seattle.gov|access-date=2016-03-18}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/politics/2018240446_portarena19m.html|title=Proposed arena a job killer, say Port of Seattle leaders|work=The Seattle Times}}</ref> which they said would cause issues for its operations. The City of Seattle studied the port's concerns at length and found them to be lacking in factual data or extensive studies.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://buildingconnections.seattle.gov/2015/05/07/seattle-arena-final-environmental-impact-statement-available/|title=Seattle Arena Final Environmental Impact Statement Available|website=buildingconnections.seattle.gov|access-date=2016-03-18}}</ref>
[[File:Portofseattle.jpeg|center|thumb|upright=2.5|[[Elliott Bay]] and the East Waterway of the Duwamish, seen from the [[Space Needle]], 2014. [[Harbor Island, Seattle|Harbor Island]] at right. Container port facilities in the right half of the photo are all on Port of Seattle land.]]
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===Alliance with Tacoma===
The possibility of merging the Ports of Seattle and Tacoma was seriously entertained as early as the 1980s, when Sea-Land abandoned Seattle for Tacoma, followed by [[K Line]] and [[Evergreen Marine Corporation]]. While Tacoma was clearly the winner in these particular transactions, both port systems were aware that they were being played off against one another.<ref name=Oldham-88>{{harvp|Oldham, Blecha, et al.|2011|p=88}}</ref>

On October 7, 2014, the Port of Seattle 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.<ref>{{cite news |url= http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/10/07/3419467_ports-of-tacoma-seattle-announce.html |title= Ports of Tacoma, Seattle announce alliance |newspaper= The News-Tribune |access-date= October 7, 2014 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20141012061539/http://www.thenewstribune.com/2014/10/07/3419467_ports-of-tacoma-seattle-announce.html |archive-date= October 12, 2014 |df= mdy-all }}</ref> Joint operations began with the formation of the [[Northwest Seaport Alliance]] on August 4, 2015, creating the third-largest cargo gateway in the United States;<ref>{{cite news |last=Garnick |first=Coral |date=August 4, 2015 |title=Seattle, Tacoma ports OK 'bold' alliance in marine cargo business |url=http://www.seattletimes.com/business/international-trade/seattle-tacoma-ports-ok-bold-alliance-in-marine-cargo-business/ |newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]] |access-date=February 29, 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Wilhelm |first=Steve |date=August 4, 2015 |title=The Northwest Seaport Alliance just became the third-largest cargo gateway in the U.S. |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2015/08/04/the-northwest-seaport-alliance-just-became-the.html |newspaper=[[Puget Sound Business Journal]] |access-date=February 29, 2016}}</ref> by the end of the year, it reported more than 3.5 million [[twenty-foot equivalent unit]]s handled by the two ports, an increase of 4 percent.<ref>{{cite press release |date=January 21, 2016 |title=Northwest Seaport Alliance tops 3.5 million containers in 2015 |url=https://www.nwseaportalliance.com/news/1212016/northwest-seaport-alliance-tops-35-million-containers-2015 |publisher=Northwest Seaport Alliance |access-date=February 29, 2016}}</ref>