Full Speed Ahead Houston

Image of ship in white with white text on blue background.

The Port of Houston is one of the world's largest ports and serves the metropolitan area of Houston, Texas. The port is a 50-mile-long complex of diversified public and private facilities located a few hours' sailing time from the Gulf of Mexico. Located in the fourth-largest city in the United States, it is the busiest port in the U.S. in terms of foreign tonnage, second busiest in the U.S. in terms of overall tonnage, and sixteenth busiest in the world. 

Notable firsts include: First port to be built with federal funds and local matching funds, thus guaranteeing local support (every port since 1930 has had a local match requirement), first direct shipment of cotton to Europe (November 1919 via the M/V Merry Mount), and first double-stack container train (1981).