For more than 300 years Philadelphia has been a great port city and a major center for international commerce. Only a few short years after William Penn's vessel "The Welcome" landed on the shores of the Delaware River, heralding the establishment of Penn's "City of Neighborhoods", Philadelphia became the New World's leading center for trade and commerce, a title it held for more than a hundred years. Even today, with major port complexes serving major metropolitan centers throughout the country, Philadelphia and its international seaport maintains a preeminent position in several areas of trade, such as the importing of perishable cargoes from South America and high-quality paper products from Scandinavia.

The Early Years

For most of its early history, the Port of Philadelphia thrived and expanded without major guidance from a central governing authority or organization. Rather, disparate private concerns built and maintained piers and waterfront warehouses, moving a wide variety of imported and exported goods through those facilities. It was during these initial years that all manner of breakbulk cargoes moved over the city's docks, establishing early on Philadelphia's reputation for the fast, expert handling of any cargo imaginable. Ultimately, city government took a more active hand in the organization of the city's waterfront, and municipally-owned piers and warehouses sprang up amidst the privately-owned facilities.

The 20th Century

For most of the early years of the 20th century, the Philadelphia waterfront was overseen and managed by the Department of Wharves, Docks, and Ferries, a division of the City of Philadelphia's Department of Commerce. The Department of Wharves, Docks, and Ferries oversaw the construction and maintenance of municipally-owned piers and port facilities, and had some regulatory power for the overall Philadelphia waterfront.

Ultimately, the activity of building and maintaining port facilities became too costly for the City of Philadelphia to undertake on its own. Therefore, a new port agency with a new form of port governance was eventually created. Established in 1965, the non-profit, quasi-public Philadelphia Port Corporation had the power to issue municipal bonds to raise funds for port improvements. Revenue to pay the bonds' debt service was realized primarily through leasing the agency's port facilities to private operating companies. These private companies operated their respective port facilities on a day-to-day basis, with marketing assistance from the Philadelphia Port Corporation.

Major port improvements were made in the 1960s and 70s under the auspices of the Philadelphia Port Corporation. These included the construction of the 106-acre Packer Avenue Marine Terminal (still the Port of Philadelphia's largest facility) and the Tioga Marine Terminal in the 1970s.

Recent History

Like many ports throughout the United States (and especially competing ports along the East Coast) the capital-intensive requirements to maintain and improve the Port of Philadelphia eventually outgrew the funding capabilities of the City of Philadelphia and its port agency. To remedy the situation, Philadelphia Port Corporation staff, with the approval of the City of Philadelphia, approached the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for major financial support. State sponsorship of port facilities was already the preferred method of operation in other ports, and it was argued the time had come for Pennsylvania to assist in the maintenance, expansion, and promotion of its international seaport in Philadelphia. The Commonwealth recognized the vital importance of its seaport asset and it agreed to take the active role requested of it. The first step was the creation of the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority (PRPA), an independent state agency, in 1990. It immediately replaced the Philadelphia Port Corporation.

Along with creating PRPA, the state purchased all publicly-owned port facilities from the City of Philadelphia, charging PRPA with the mission of managing and maintaining them. A major state capital budget was also established, which allowed PRPA to make an initial round of needed capital improvements during the early 1990s, such as the addition of on-dock warehouse space at Tioga Marine Terminal and new warehouse space and refrigeration at Pier 82.

Since its inception the PRPA has overseen other major improvements to the Port, as well as aggressively assisting its terminal operators in marketing the Port around the world. PRPA also works with other port agencies and port-related concerns along the Delaware River on issues of mutual concern, such as maintaining sufficient channel depth and monitoring regulatory issues.

The 21st Century
PRPA and its 11-member Board of regional business leaders have overseen a variety of notable developments at the Port of Philadelphia. The PRPA is the nation’s 14th Strategic Military Port by the U.S. Defense Department, allowing it one of only 14 U.S. ports permitted to handle our nation’s military cargoes destined for different points around the globe. The PRPA is also a homeport for two U.S. Navy Large, Medium Speed Roll On/Roll Off (LMSR) ships. These Naval supply vessels, docked at PRPA’s Tioga Marine Terminal, are often utilized to deliver the military cargoes now handled by PRPA as a result of its Strategic Military Port designation.

More information about the PRPA can be found in the “News” section of this website. And, of course, there are the usual ongoing concerns of securing new customers and keeping PRPA’s facilities efficient and modern. Because, in the end, nothing is more important than protecting the Port of Philadelphia’s 300-plus year legacy as a major center of maritime industrial commerce.