Global Terminal Unveils Major Expansion Plan in Bayonne

Giovanni da Verrazzano anchors in what is now called The Narrows, the strait between Staten Island and Long Island. He receives a canoe party of Native Americans from the Lenape tribe, but apparently does not travel farther north into Upper New York Bay or the Hudson River.

Henry Hudson enters New York Harbor and explores a stretch of the river that now bears his name. His successful exploration attracts settlers to the region and they engage in trade with the local population.

New Amsterdam (at the lower tip of modern day Manhattan) is settled as a fief of the Dutch West India Company. A prosperous trade of beaver skins between Native Americans and the Dutch is the early foundation for the development of what will become the Port of New York.

The British trading ship William, sailing down the Hudson loaded with Native American beaver pelts, is blockaded by the Dutch at New Amsterdam and all pelts are confiscated, setting off a bitter quarrel between England and Holland over control of the Hudson River territory.

The first wharf on the Manhattan bank of the lower East River, constructed according to the orders of the colonial Dutch Director-General of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant, is completed and called Schreyers Hook Dock (near what is now Pearl and Broad Streets).

The first wharfage charges are levied and collected on the East River pier.

New Amsterdam becomes New York after British Colonel Richard Nicolls forces Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant to surrender control of the settlement, ending 55 years of Dutch rule in lower Manhattan. Nicolls becomes the first English governor of New York.

The town of Newark in New Jersey is founded by Connecticut Puritans led by Robert Treat, who negotiates sale of the land (including not only modern day Newark but also what is now Montclair, Bloomfield, Nutley, Belleville, Glen Ridge and most of the Oranges) from the Hackensack Indians.

The Great Dock, Manhattan's first major commercial shipping dock stretching from current day Whitehall Street north to Coenties Slip, is constructed under direction of Governor Edmund Andros with a council resolution saying "that a harbour should be made before ye city of New-York."

Shipbuilding comes to New York City when Rip Van Dam is granted permission to establish a shipyard. He is followed by John Latham, considered by many to be the pioneer shipbuilder in the area later known as the "Shipyards" district, near the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.

At the time of New York's 100th birthday, the city's population totals 7,000 people living in fewer than 1,000 houses from the lower tip of Manhattan north to where City Hall stands today.

The nation's first mercantile organization, the New York Chamber of Commerce, is founded by 20 prominent New York businessmen.

The Marine Society of the City of New York is founded for the relief of distressed shipmasters or their widows and children, and also for the promotion of maritime knowledge.

Bearing the new American flag adopted in 1777, the Empress of China trading ship sails from New York for China in February, ushering in a new era of commercial prosperity for the port. The ship returns in May the next year bringing an exotic cargo of luxury items from the Far East.

The Bank of New York, America's first bank, is opened for business in the front parlor of the famed Walton House on Queen Street. Alexander Hamilton wrote the constitution for the bank, the first to make a loan to the new federal government of the United States in the amount of $200,000.

The first American drydock is completed on the East River.

The Erie Canal is completed, linking the Hudson River near Albany with Lake Erie at Buffalo 363 miles to the west. This immediately makes New York the most important transshipping port between the American interior and Europe.

New York becomes the nation's largest exporter of flour, overtaking Baltimore and Philadelphia. In 1820, before the Erie Canal, Baltimore was the chief flour port. In 1827, New York inspects 625,000 barrels compared to 572,000 and 351,000 by Baltimore and Philadelphia, respectively.

By 1846, New York is inspecting more than double the amount of flour than any other port. Flourmills flourish along the Hudson River. More passengers and a greater tonnage of cargo come through the port of New York than all other major harbors in the country combined.

The first modern longshoremen's union was formed in the port of New York, called the Longshoremen's Union Protective Association (LUPA). For hundreds of years before LUPA, longshoremen had suffered horrible working conditions and even worse pay.

Department of Docks is established to systematize waterfront development, with George B. McClellan as the first engineer in chief.

Delegates from 11 ports convene in Detroit to adopt the by-laws of the longshoremen's Chicago local under the name National Longshoremen's Association of The United States. By 1895, the union changes its name to International Longshoremen's Association (ILA).

By the turn of the century, numerous railroad terminals lined the western banks of the Hudson River from Jersey City to Weehawkin and Edgewater. Freight was ferried across by the competing railroads with small fleets of towboats, barges and car floats. Piers line the west side of Manhattan.

International Longshoremen's Association Local 791 becomes the first surviving ILA chapter in the Port of New York. By 1914, less than 25 percent of New York dockworkers are in unions roughly divided between the ILA and LUPA.

The International Longshoremen's Association absorbs LUPA in New York and ILA's New York District Council is born, starting a period of growth in size and power. Coastwise longshoremen at Atlantic Ocean ports are organized under the ILA in 1916.

The Port of New York Authority, later renamed the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is established following an order by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) that the states of New York and New Jersey work together to oversee efficient economic development of the port district.

New York Harbor is the busiest in the world during World War II, with 543 ships at anchor in March 1943 awaiting assignment with as many as 425 vessels already at one of the 750 piers or docks. More than 1,000 warehouses served freight along with 575 tugboats and 39 active shipyards.

The Port Authority assumes responsibility for operating Port Newark.

On April 26, a date many hail as the birth of containerization, a retrofitted tanker vessel called the Ideal X, operated by Pan Atlantic Steamship Line, sails for Houston from Port Newark. The containerized shipping concept pioneered by Malcom McLean will change the world of trade forever.

The world's first container port, Elizabeth-Port Authority Marine Terminal, opens and becomes known as "America's Container Capital." Sea-Land Service Inc. is the terminal operator. Sea-Land will become the world's largest container shipping company.

Teddy Gleason is unanimously elected president at the ILA International Convention, mostly as a result of his widely respected efforts as General Organizer during the 1950s to save the ILA from rival union AFL-IBL.

Gleason negotiates what, at the time, is the longest lasting ILA contract in history. The contract focuses on the future of longshoring in general and the welfare of ILA members as containerization begins to sweep across the globe and change the waterfront forever.

Global Terminal opens in Port Jersey, Bayonne. The terminal promotes its advantages over Newark and Elizabeth port terminals due its location along New York Bay, ahead of the Kill Van Kull and entrance into Newark Bay.

John Bowers, International Executive Vice President for the duration of Gleason's presidency, is elected President of the union. The ILA and ocean carriers continue to enjoy a harmonious relationship on the East Coast that facilitates huge growth in the industry and a thriving ILA.

Container volume handled at Port of New York and New Jersey facilities tops 2 million Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs).

Container volume handled at Port of New York and New Jersey facilities tops 3 million TEUs.

Container volume handled at Port of New York and New Jersey facilities tops 4 million TEUs.

Container volume handled at Port of New York and New Jersey facilities tops 5 million TEUs.

Richard Hughes Jr. is elected International President of the ILA, succeeding John Bowers. The Port Authority acquires the old Northeast Auto Terminal property on the Port Jersey peninsula adjacent to the existing Global Terminal and changes the lease to allow for container handling.

The Port Authority agrees to acquire Global Terminal property, joining it with the old Northeast Auto Terminal property, leasing the entire 170-acre Port Jersey peninsula back to Global Container Terminals, Inc. for expansion that will assist in handling future cargo growth.

In December, the Port Authority announces it's "Raise the Roadway" alternative to provide the most effective solution to the Bayonne Bridge clearance issue - raising the bridge's roadway to eliminate air draft restrictions currently prohibiting larger container vessels from accessing Port of Newark and Elizabeth terminal facilities.

Harold J. Daggett is elected International President of the ILA, succeeding Richard Hughes.

Global Terminal unveils 70-acre expansion plan using the latest container handling technology, opening a new chapter in the history of the port. The facility will use advanced port terminal equipment and operating systems to improve throughput density per acre.

The expanded Global Terminal opens on the Port Jersey peninsula, capable of handling the largest vessels in the world with total annual capacity of 1.7 million TEU.

The expanded Panama Canal opens to allow the largest container vessels in the world to sail through the canal connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.