Port Of West Sacramento, USA

The Port of West Sacramento is in the center of one of the world's richest agricultural regions. The Port of West Sacramento is an inland port about 146 kilometers northeast of the Port of San Francisco, and cargo ships get to the Port of West Sacramento by traveling through the San Francisco Bay and up the Sacramento River. The Port of West Sacramento exports bagged and bulk rice, cement, lumber, fertilizers, and project cargoes like wind generators.

The indigenous Maidu people inhabited the region around the Port of West Sacramento before Spanish explorer Pedro Fages arrived there in the 1770s and named the river for Christian religious sacraments.

The Port of West Sacramento became a hub of transportation on the river when John Sutter started a steamer service, and the Port of West Sacramento was a terminus for the Pony Express and the first railroad in California.

The original idea to create an inland port is credited to Major Paul Norboe in 1916. He began to advocate for a deep water channel and harbor with the State and the Sacramento Chamber of Commerce. In the early 1900s, the Sacramento River was dredged, giving ships seasonal access from the Port of West Sacramento to the Pacific Ocean.

In the 1930s, William Stone, the "Father of the Port," continued to push for a deep-water port to bolster the city's economy. He got the US Army Corps of Engineers to take a second look at the potential for a deep-water port, and they proposed to construct a 43-mile channel.

The project was approved by the US Congress in 1946, and the port district was created. Voters created the Sacramento-Yolo Port District, and the groundbreaking took place in 1949. The project was completed in 1960, making the Port of West Sacramento year-round deep-water port.

The City of West Sacramento took over control of the Port of West Sacramento in 2005, renaming it the Port of West Sacramento.

In May 2009, the Port of West Sacramento received $10 million in President Obama's 2010 Budget Request for the purpose of deepening the channel for the Port of West Sacramento.

The Port of West Sacramento is considered one of California's small ports. In 2008, the Port of West Sacramento handled a total of 852.9 thousand tons of cargo.

The Port of West Sacramento specializes in handling bulk, breakbulk, and project cargoes. Major cargoes include bagged rice, cement, wood chips, sand and aggregates, jumbo bags, steel coils, lumber, fiberboard, and project and heavy-lift cargoes.

The City of West Sacramento is a relatively new town. After 1900, three towns – West Sacramento, Bryte, and Broderick – were called "East Yolo." With a population of just 1398 in 1900, the population doubled by 1920. When the Port of West Sacramento was opened in 1963 with completion of the deep-water ship channel, the town of West Sacramento began to grow rapidly.