IV-124 



SECTION 3. USE FOR TRANSPORTATION 



The Nation's estuaries provide the physical, social, and economic 

 conditions required for an effective system of: water terminals 

 serving international trade and coastal shipping; essential ele- 

 ments of the national defense system; areas used for airport devel- 

 opment; and land transport. 



According to a 1966 inventory of ports and terminals by the Mari- 

 time Administration, there were 1,626 marine terminal facilities 

 providing deep water berths 1n 132 ports on the Atlantic, Gulf, 

 and Pacific coasts. Table IV. 2. 5 shows the distribution of estu- 

 arine ports. The significance of these ports and terminal facil- 

 ities 1s indicated by the 1965 statistics which show that they 

 handled 78 per cent of the U.S. foreign trade total, or 346,315,000 

 tons of foreign trade cargo. In addition, the port facilities 

 handled 332.1 million tons 1n coastal cargo and 288.2 million 

 tons 1n local shipping. 



Table IV. 2. 5 also shows arrivals and departures for the major U.S. 

 ports for 1964. The traffic indicated by these statistics demon- 

 strates the competition for water surface and navigation channels. 

 In New York, for example, there are between two and three arrivals 

 or departures every hour. Portland, the 11th ranking port in the 

 estuarine zone, has an arrival or departure every two hours. 

 There is very little information giving a breakdown in vessel 



