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Port of Tacoma history
Port of Tacoma company history timeline
Part 1 of this Thumbnail History of the Port traces its development from Tacoma's early maritime commerce through World War II. Until 1918, Tacoma's waterfront was dominated by private entrepreneurs and corporations, especially the Northern Pacific railroad.
The Port of Tacoma Commission worked throughout the decade to build the promised cold-storage plant that had helped win voter approval for the port in 1918.
Frank J. Walsh Master Plan for Port of Tacoma, 1918
5, 1918, and elected our first three commissioners: Chester Thorne, a banker; Edward Kloss, a longshore official; and C.W. Orton, a fruit and dairy farmer.
It wasn’t until 1919 that voters gave their nod to the formation of the Port of Tacoma with a $2.5 million bond to buy land on the waterfront and being construction of a municipal pier.
The Port of Tacoma formally began commercial shipping on March 25, 1921.
Shipping business grew so rapidly that even before the 1923 completion of Pier 2, which featured a huge bulk-storage transit shed and a unique overhead monorail crane system, the commissioners were planning to extend Pier 1 to provide more room for docking ships.
In November 1928 voters approved a $500,000 bond issue to fund the grain elevator.
In 1928, the Hooker Chemical company, one of a number of electrochemical companies attracted by inexpensive electricity from Tacoma Public Utilities, built a plant on the tideflats.
The Great Depression began in 1929, even before the grain elevator and cold-storage facility were complete.
The United Grain Terminal, with a capacity of 450,000 bushels and a 600-foot-long, railroad-tracked pier, opened in August 1930, enabling the Port of Tacoma to export grain from Eastern Washington and Oregon and as far away as the Midwest.
A sign of better times occurred on August 13, 1933, when 11 freighters sailed into Commencement Bay.
The Industrial Waterway Bridge opened in 1953 to provide a direct connection from downtown to the eastern tideflats and the Northeast Tacoma neighborhood.
The Port of Tacoma entered the container era in 1970 when it acquired its first container crane to lift the 20-foot boxes in which all but the most bulky or unwieldy cargo was now transported.
Operated by Auto Warehousing Company, which began serving Tacoma in 1970, eight years after its founding in Seattle, the new facility could store and process nearly 20,000 vehicles at a time.
Blair Terminal, with two berths for log exports, opened in 1972, followed a year later by Weyerhaeuser's 25-acre wood-chip facility.
The 30-year trade embargo of China ended in 1979, marking the first spike in trade with Pacific Rim nations.
A few miles away at Terminal 7, two prominent alumina domes -- sometimes termed the "original Tacoma domes" (the actual Tacoma Dome arena opened in 1983) -- were built to store ore for use at the smelter.
The Sunrise delivers two Hitachi container cranes for Sea-Land's Port of Tacoma terminal, December 1984
United Grain Terminal being demolished to make way for expansion of North Intermodal Rail Yard, Port of Tacoma, 1987
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 Ever Lyric, the first Evergreen vessel to call at Tacoma, arrived in July 1991.
Washington United Terminals (WUT), the first new development on the upper waterway, opened in 1999.
First Evergreen Marine Corporation ship to call at new Pierce County Terminal, Port of Tacoma, December 22, 2004
The Port of Tacoma opened three new terminals in 2005, allowing it to handle more than two million containers in a year for the first time.
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.
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Port of Tacoma competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Port of Seattle | 1911 | $76.0M | 2,150 | 37 |
| Port of Everett | 1918 | $29.9M | 77 | - |
| Port of Newcastle | 2014 | $29.0M | 175 | - |
| Port of Los Angeles Police | 1907 | $453.0M | 500 | - |
| Port of Oakland | 1927 | $79.0M | 437 | 3 |
| Association of American Railroads | 1934 | $63.8M | 99 | - |
| Houston Airport System | 1937 | $47.0M | 3,000 | - |
| STC Logistics | 1992 | $750,000 | 7 | 40 |
| Puget Sound International | - | $1.6M | 30 | 41 |
| Dallas Fort Worth International Airport | 1974 | $745.6M | 8 | - |
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