Under the Transportation heading in the CIA World Factbook, subheading ‘Ports and Terminals’, the following are listed: Corpus Christi, Duluth, Hampton Roads, Houston, Long Beach, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Tampa, Texas City.
Is there a reason Charleston hasn’t become a major port? Maybe because it was a military base until recently? Or perhaps it’s simply not suitable (too shallow, too narrow?) to be a useful port? I-26 and I-95 are close by. And the savannah river would get barges nearly to I-85. Seems like a good place.
There are dozens of major ports and terminals in the US. The Factbook “… lists major ports and terminals primarily on the basis of the amount of cargo tonnage shipped through the facilities on an annual basis. In some instances, the number of containers handled or ship visits were also considered.”
The four largest are New York/New Jersey, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and Detroit. Detroit isn’t on the list, but Duluth is (Duluth handles about 45 million tons in a good year, a third of what the large ports handle). One must assume that Duluth is strategic in some way.
IIRC, Charleston, though a significant port, isn’t deep enough to accomodate newer vessels. This problem is actually a pretty old one: Charleston and many others started having problems and dredged out their harbors even in the 19th century. Shipbuilders want ships so big (and drafts so deep) that very few places can actually dock them anymore.
The other reason may be environmental regulation. The U.S. actually needs more port space (badly) but a port is a huge transportation center with a lot of local pollution. Getting the permits to do it is almost impossible.
Duluth became a huge port because of iron ore. Though this declined in recent decades. Duluth is the Great Lakes port furthest west, so the Plains States ship their grain to Duluth.
The port of Chicago was developed to become one of the largest. And at first glance Chicago has it all. A river, a lake and with the opening of the St Lawrence Seaway an ocean. But the development of container cargo made the facilities built by Chicago for deep water not needed. Thus the port of Chicago is way underdeveloped.
However Chicago is still number one in rail transportation and trucking and competes with Atlanta for #1 airport. This largely has replaced shipping in Chicago.
Charleston was a key port in the south. The other main ports were New Orleans, Baltimore and Mobile. The biggest issue that kept Charleston small was lack of railroads in the South. The Civil War destroyed what few railroads there were.
Thus New Orleans was able to get by on the river traffic that was cheaper than the railroads, and eventually the oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Baltimore prospered but it’s location made it more Mid-Atlantic than Southern after the Civil War.
So businesses found it more profitable without railroad support to ship via water, which led to New Orleans, or to multiple smaller ports like Mobile, Jacksonville, Biloxi and Norfolk
When I was there several years ago a bus driver said while driving over the really scary bridge just outside of Charleston that there was a problem getting the larger ships through the bridge. He said that the military had wanted to build a tunnel at some point but the city fathers went with the bridge as easier and cleaner.
The old “scary” bridge is gone. The new one is huge. Clearance is no longer a problem.
Port expansions are always a big showdown argument. Few people want the associated trucking and pollution, although the ports (we have multiple facilities) keep the local economy robust and fairly recession-proof (along with tourism).
The cargo is mostly moved by container trucks. The I-526 was built mainly for this purpose and does its job quite well. We have plenty of trains and switching yards as well, although I don’t think they run to all facilities (we have lots of rivers/marsh/bridges as you might imagine).
Dredging has been non-stop for years due to silt generated by upstream Santee dam/powerstation. But it’s pretty deep (80 feet I seem to recall) in the shipping lanes. We used to run nuclear subs and huge ships out of the naval base before it closed. The base still stands mostly empty with cool, derelict buildings anyone can go fart around in. We still run a large Air Force Base.
Maersk (shipping company) has threatened to leave (30%+ of the port business) due to longshoreman union money issues.
Not all of my facts may be accurate. I’m just a local spouting general knowledge.
When did Charleston convert to container shipping? A lot of ports gained or lost prominence over that issue. Some established ports held off on making the switch and found themselves being eclipsed by the ports that had converted earlier and taken their business - even when they finally did convert, the lost business was never fully regained.