Inland Waterways - Inland Ports (1973)

[Music] since we live on land we're inclined to forget that most of this world is covered by water there's about 6,000 miles of Pacific Ocean between us and Asia and about 3,000 miles of Atlantic Ocean between our country and the countries of Europe we used to think of the oceans as barriers that separated us from the rest of the world but not anymore now we think of them as highways connecting our country with almost every nation of the world [Music] our land and the oceans are joined by rivers and canals that linked the entire country with the sea ships and barges often sail past the coastline up these great inland waterways deep into the heart of the continent [Music] we've got more than 25,000 miles of usable waterways in the heartland of our nation and another 15 dozen miles in the Great Lakes these waterways connect Chicago and Nashville Pittsburgh and Houston Sacramento and Stockton Memphis and Minneapolis Cincinnati and Kansas City and others they're connected to each other the sea and the rest of the world [Music] Oh [Music] [Music] and this is my ship the Hongkong bear the freighter of 7,000 times that's me with the beard John Larson third mate we've been at sea for 17 days and a run from Taiwan below decks we've got 10,000 tonnes of textiles shirts and sweaters goods from Asian factories headed for the American market day and night we've been making a steady 20 knots across the North Pacific that's about 23 miles an hour to you but right now are slowing down to begin the trip upriver to an inland sea port [Music] [Music] where this ship is built for the open sea in this river channel doesn't give us much room to operate captain Wallace there's a river pilot it's his job to guide us safely to port some places he's got only 50 feet of clearance on either side he uses radar depth finders radio navigation aids in church but his experience is the main thing he knows this river and he has complete command to shoot [Music] [Music] by [Music] ahead of SDM on ports not much different from any seaport there's plenty of dock space where has special loading equipment it all depends on the kind of cargos a handled the port knows were inbound so dock and warehouse space have been assigned the long terminar standing by downloaded they've got just 24 hours to get it on ion and underway again a lot of new equipment and ideas are used now but there's still a lot of tradition that goes with ships in the sea and making ports just as exciting now as it ever was [Music] when we're import longshoremen take care of the cargo Hamlin they use the ships booms and winches but they bring aboard their own slings and forklifts they work in teams called gang and it can be very hard work but there isn't any other way to get this kind of cargo out of a ship's hold [Music] why [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the pork handles almost anything you can imagine motorcycles asbestos radios tan fruit wire molasses heavy machinery oil textiles the glass automobile and what's more it all moves through here at one time or another [Music] if you stop to think about it the real wealth of the world isn't money but stuff like this the things money buys the basic idea of a port is to get these things from the people who produce them to the people who want them as quickly as possible and at the lowest cost per unit so a port is really a big distribution center for all kinds of raw materials and manufactured goods rail yards are naturally a part of the port facility bringing goods into the port for shipment overseas and moving imports out to markets around the country trucks are used to do much the same thing for smaller loads and shorter hauls trucks trains ships and port work as a system each element doing a special job efficiently quickly and economically each cargo has its own requirement and a port is usually set up for them by having specialized facilities grain comes into the port in special trains and trucks and goes to the grain terminal [Music] [Music] these elevators can fill a ship's hold with rice wheat barley sorghum or alfalfa maybe it took five months to grow but they load it in a couple of days and in three weeks it's on the other side of the world [Laughter] [Music] Oh [Music] many of the cargoes we carry are raw materials like these logs going to Japan raw materials require special facilities but some of these cargoes require special ships - these logs are being stowed on a ship that carries nothing but Ember [Music] specialization and efficiency have never been more important than they are now in many traditional ways of maritime commerce are changing pressure to become more efficient has produced a lot of innovations and a whole new technology has been developed to keep things moving as quickly as possible like this giant crane now one guy lifts and Stowe's tons of cargo quickly easily and safely containers are one of the most important innovations they go right from a truck powertrain onto a ship's deck then at the end of the voyage that go right back onto another truck or train and off to the user containerized Freight now goes from Japan to New York and you're sixteen days instead of the 22 just a few years ago the port's one of those things we don't think about very often but this place is awfully important to the way we live many of the things we use everyday come to us from across the sea most of it by ship through port often inland ports like this one [Music] Oh [Music] Oh