| Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia in Canada, and it's the first inbound and last outbound port on in North America. Located on Canada's eastern coast on a rocky peninsula in Halifax Harbor, the Port of Halifax is ice-free and one of Canada's busiest ports. Port History British colonials began to settle there in 1749 when Edward Cornwallis fortified the town to compete with the French stronghold in Cape Breton. The Port of Halifax was one of Britain's most fortified army and navy bases until the Canadian government took over the dockyards in 1906. It was Canada's largest and most important and naval base through both world wars. An important cultural center, the Port of Halifax contains colleges and universities dating to the late 18th and early 19th Centuries. It hosts several historic buildings like St. Paul's Church, Canada's oldest Protestant Church, built in 1750. Its Historic Properties area contains restorations of 19th Century waterfront buildings. The Port of Halifax is home to Canada's oldest parliament building, Province House (1818). In 1912, the Port of Halifax joined the rescue mission for the ill-fated Titanic. Almost 200 bodies were brought back to the Port, and many of them were buried there. Port Commerce One of the world's biggest and deepest natural harbors, its outer harbor is over a mile wide and almost five miles long. The inner harbor, Bedford Basin, is 60 feet deep at low tide. The Halifax Port Authority is responsible for developing, marketing, and managing the Port of Halifax's assets. The Port of Halifax offers state-of-the-art facilities for shipping and cruise lines. Its Autoport is one of the largest vehicle shipment facilities in North America, handling almost 100 thousand vehicles a year. The CN Terminal provides on-dock rail service where double-stack trains operate daily. The CN Terminal can handle 150 TEUs a day. Located near CN Terminal's rail yards, the Fairview Container Terminal offers a 70-acre terminal with storage capacity for 12 thousand TEUs. Pier 24 in the Port of Halifax provides open space for handling products like steel, project cargo, and heavy-lift operations. Shippers can load directly from rail to ship. Pier 23 offers 53 thousand square feet of multi-purpose storage space. The Ocean Terminals have deep-water berths, a combination of covered and open storage space, and access to both road and rail, and it handles diverse cargoes like forest products, rubber, and steel. In 1998, Ocean Terminals was named a National Historic Civil Engineering Site and became the first port on the North American East Coast to receive a post-Panamax container vessel. A multi-use facility, Richmond Terminals specializes in breakbulk operations with direct on- and off-loading to ship, rail, and storage. It offers over 85 thousand square feet of open space and 60 thousand square feet of shed space. The South End Container Terminal offers some of the deepest berths in all of North America. In 2007, the Port of Halifax handled over 12 million tons of cargo, including 7.6 million tons of bulk cargo, 153 thousand tons of breakbulk cargo, 245 thousand tons of roll-on/roll-off cargo, and over 4 million tons of containerized cargo. Cruising and Travel The Port of Halifax's Seaport is the cruise ship facility with over 650 yards of berth space. The Port of Halifax is considered a flagship destination on the Canada-New England cruise route. The 78th Highlanders welcome passengers with the ring of bagpipes as the passengers move through covered gangways from cruise ship to Pavilion 22, the new cruise passenger facility. You can find a schedule for cruise vessels visiting the Port of Halifax on the Internet. The Port of Halifax expects over 200 thousand pas |
