PORT OF SEATTLE 
MEMORANDUM 

COMMISSION AGENDA                   Item No.         4a 
Date of Meeting      August 2, 2011 
DATE:      July 27, 2011 
TO:         Tay Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer 
FROM:     Jane Kilburn, Director, Public Affairs 
SUBJECT:   Special Order of Business: The Port Centennial 1911-2011 
From its founding in the early 1850s, Seattle was a city dependent on trade. In the 1890s, the
Great Northern Railway, a predecessor of BNSF, built two of the largest cargo carriers in the
world to establish trade between Seattle and Japan, China, and the Philippines. It was only
natural that international shipping, especially to Asia, was an important focus for the Port from
its earliest days. 
Today, China, Japan, and other Asian countries remain among the Port's most significant
trading partners. In 2010, more than $22.7 billion, or 53 percent of the total waterborne
commerce, flowed between the Port and China, and cargo valued at $6.4 billion, or 15 percent,
of our total cargo was shipped from or destined for Japan. In fact, over 90 percent of the
Seaport's waterborne cargo is either imported from or exported to the Asian market. Asian
imports included furniture, machinery, toys, clothing, and footwear. The Port's exports included
many products grown or manufactured in Washington state, including animal feed, hay, fruits, 
vegetables and other foodstuffs, and logs and other forestry products. 
As the closest U.S. port to Asia, Seattle markets itself as "The Green Gateway" because we offer
the lowest carbon footprint for shipments from Asia to middle America and the East Coast. The
Port also has excellent flight and air cargo service to Asia. Nine airlines fly passengers to
destinations in Asia, and Delta Air Lines has named the Airport its "Gateway to Asia," investing
in facilities and routes out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. 
The situation today parallels the Port's history. World War I helped the Port expand its Asian
horizons as the U.S. government shipped war materiel to Asia, and by the end of WWI Seattle
was the second largest port in the country, surpassed only by New York. In 1919, the Port
declared Seattle a "World Port," embarked on trade missions, marketed itself as the shortest
route to Asia, and promoted Seattle as the "Gateway to the Orient." Trade volume increased
1000 percent in the Port's first ten years, and trade with Asia played a major role in that increase
with silk and soybean imports and salmon and grain exports. . 
The Port was among the first West Coast ports to embrace containerization, and Asia played a
different but important role in the mid-1960s as the "container revolution" was gaining

COMMISSION AGENDA 
T. Yoshitani, Chief Executive Officer 
July 27, 2011 
Page 2 of 2 

adherents. Sea-Land pioneered the container transportation model, and Sea-Land had selected
Seattle as its base of operations at Terminal 5 in 1964, initially for the Alaska trade. However, as
the Vietnam War escalated in the mid-to-late 1960s, Sea-Land set up container port facilities at
Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), Cam Rahn Bay, Da Nang and Que Nhon (Vietnam). Sea-Land was
a major shipper of military supplies to Vietnam, and its operations proved the effectiveness of
container shipping for military support in a war zone. Sea-Land was purchased by Maersk in
1999 and remains a customer of the Port. 
Finally, the Port figured prominently in the historic 1979 visit to the U.S. of Chinese Vice
Premier Deng Xiaoping soon after the U.S. "normalized" its diplomatic relationship with China
after a thirty-year hiatus. Deng's visit helped to re-invigorate the Port's long-standing trade ties
to China. The M.V. Liu Lin Hai docked in Seattle at Pier 91 and was the first Chinese ship to
enter a U.S. port since 1949.
OTHER DOCUMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH THIS SPECIAL ORDER: 
PowerPoint presentation