Port of Tacoma Tour

Every year, the Port of Tacoma and Pearce County operate a series of one-hour tours on a cruise ship. There is no charge and passengers have a timed ticket, so there are no long lines. It turned out to be a rainy day, but that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the Tacoma’s residents.

The Spirit of Seattle usually runs various tours around Seattle, operated by Argosy Cruises. It was only half full for the port tours so there was plenty of space to move around on the deck.

The first facility we saw is the tank farm, which temporarily stores refined petroleum products for distribution by tanker trucks. There is also a small refinery on the port, but the guide didn’t say anything about that.

This power plant was used to generate electricity for the port, but it is no longer operational. In fact, it is for sale.

This is s roll-on-roll-off ship that, as its name suggests, is used to transport vehicles that require no special handling. However, it also transports heavy equipment, some of which requires partial disassembly to fit into the ship’s hold.

These are the main cranes for handling container ships. The one in the foreground is unloading a ship (One Strength, registered in Singapore) that can carry about 14,000 TEUs–twenty foot equivalent cargo container–or about 7000 40-foot shipping containers. The largest container ships can carry 24,000 TEUs.

Along with storage facilities for cargo, an aluminum plant, and a couple of gypsum plants, there is a repair facility. It is currently preparing an ocean-going fishing ship for the upcoming season.

The Port of Tacoma also handles grains and cereals through a modern facility that can load these bulk ships in all weather. The corn, soy beans, etc arrives by trains that arrive practically year round, mostly from central and eastern Washington.

Final Thoughts

Dreary weather didn’t hamper my interest is seeing the Port of Tacoma up close. This place can handle everything a nation needs to import or export. Places like this are the real backbone of our economy, not computer chips and programmers.

But running a complex facility like this isn’t easy. The smelter that used to operate along Commencement Bay produced so much pollution that my back yard was part of an EPA Superfund site, and there is a current site along the eastern shore where an aluminum plant operated for decades. We have a long way to go, but the waters surrounding Tacoma are the cleanest I’ve ever seen in my life.