Port of Seattle history

Port of Seattle Bell Street Pier, May 16, 1915

Construction began in 1943 and was completed the next year, but the new airport was devoted largely to military use until the war ended.

Legislative hearings in 1961 brought statutory reforms granting the Port greater authority.

Freighter Anthemios at Pier 86 grain terminal, Seattle, November 13, 1970

Cold storage at Terminal 91 (Piers 90 and 91, re-acquired from the federal government in 1976) facilitated seafood exports to Japan and other Asian markets.

By 1996 Bell Street Pier was redeveloped with waterfront plazas (including a rooftop park where the first Port Commission had a park 80 years before), a marina, and conference facilities.

In 2000, the first phase of the Bell Street Pier Cruise Terminal was completed, bringing the luxury cruise-ship industry, and the jobs and revenue it generated, to Seattle in a big way.

In the first years of the twenty-first century, Seattle's maritime shipping grew rapidly, aided in part, ironically, by a 2002 labor dispute that closed all West Coast ports for 11 days.

In 2011, the Port of Seattle celebrated its centennial with a series of events marking its accomplishments and the publication of a history of its first 100 years, written and produced by HistoryLink.

Although the two port commissions collaborated in other areas, as recently as 2012 the Port of Seattle lost a major shipper, the Grand Alliance, when it moved operations to Tacoma.

In 2014, as British Columbia surpassed the combined container traffic of Seattle and Tacoma, the two Puget Sound ports announced they would work jointly to attract shipping customers and set rates.

Fishermen's Terminal, from Ballard Bridge, Seattle, August 13, 2016

The number of passengers embarking from the Port's three cruise-ship berths also rose, topping 1 million for the first time in 2017, and the Port began planning an additional cruise-ship berth at Terminal 46.