Port of Baltimore

The Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore is a shipping port along the tidal basins of the three branches of the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Maryland, on the upper northwest shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is the nation's largest port facility for specialized cargo (roll-on/roll-off ships) and passenger facilities. It is operated by the Maryland Port Administration (MPA), a unit of the Maryland Department of Transportation.

Founded in 1706, the port was renamed in 2006 for Helen Delich Bentley (1923–2016), who represented Baltimore as a U.S. Representative for a decade and who had also been a maritime reporter and editor for The Baltimore Sun daily newspaper.

In 1608, Captain John Smith traveled 170 miles (270 km) from Jamestown (established the previous year) exploring the shores, rivers, creeks, and streams to the upper Chesapeake Bay towards the Susquehanna River, leading the first European expedition to the Patapsco River, named after the native Algonquian peoples who fished shellfish and hunted.

English royal and proprietary land grants from 1661 were combined in 1702 by James Carroll, who named it Whetstone Point because of the landform shape resembling a sharpening stone. The area is now known as Locust Point, a residential and industrial area. The port was founded on this site in 1706 by the provincial Maryland General Assembly, which designated it one of the official Port of Entry for the tobacco trade with the Kingdom of England. In 1729–1730, Baltimore was established by Act of Assembly to the northwest at "The Basin" of the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco. This area was later known as the Inner Harbor.

In 1776, local citizenry erected earthworks for port defense during the American Revolutionary War known as Fort Whetstone. These port fortifications were replaced beginning in 1798. In addition, Fort McHenry was expanded and reconstructed with brick and stone in a "star fort" shape. This work was conducted by the officers and engineers of the United States Army and its Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Department of War.

Fells Point, first named Long Island Point in 1670, is the deepest point in the natural harbor on the north shore of the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco. It soon became the colony's main shipbuilding center, with many shipyards, famed for the construction of the unique styled Baltimore clipper smaller-sized sailing schooners. These were notorious as commerce raiders, and privateers used them. This type of activity led to the British attack in September 1814, during the War of 1812 known as the Battle of Baltimore. It is noted for the famous bombardment of Fort McHenry as well as a land attack to the southeast at the Battle of North Point, which attacked fortifications on the east side of town at Loudenschlager's and Potter's Hills (today's Hampstead Hill/Patterson Park). Fells Point was incorporated into old Baltimore Town in 1773. The Continental Navy ordered their first frigate warship, USS Virginia, from George Wells at Fells Point in 1775. The first ship named the U.S.F Constellation was produced at the Harris Creek shipyard east of Fells Point (the site of the future neighborhood of Canton) by a master shipwright from Hingham, Massachusetts named David Stodder. The third USS Enterprise was built at Henry Spencer's shipyard. Over 800 ships were commissioned from Fells Point shipyards from 1784 to 1821. The California Gold Rush of 1848–1849 led to many orders for fast vessels. Many overland pioneers also relied upon canned goods supplied from Baltimore factories.

After Baltimore's founding, the waterfront developed into drydocks, warehouses, ship chandlers, and industry, including mills, which were built behind the wharves. In what is now Canton, further southeast of Baltimore and Fells Point along the Patapsco River, John O'Donnell's plantation was developed in the early 1800s for worker housing and industry, including the Canton Iron Works owned by Peter Cooper and later Horace Abbott during the Civil War and others.

In 1828, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) began track laying, eventually extending into Locust Point in 1845. The arrival of B&O and other railroads made the port a central transshipment point between inland points and the rest of the world. By the 1840s, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company ("Old Bay Line") was providing overnight steamship service down the Chesapeake Bay. After the Civil War, coffee ships were designed here for trade with Brazil. Other industrial activities in Canton included Baltimore Copper Smelting Company and small oil refineries, later purchased by Standard Oil. By the end of the nineteenth century, European ship lines had terminals for emigrants from Britain, Ireland, Germany, and Poland.