Industrial Port

A port is a facility for receiving ships and/or transferring cargo. It is usually found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake. A prerequisite for a port is a harbor with water of sufficient depth to receive ships whose draft will allow safe passage. Protection from the wind and waves is ideal. Some ports feature canals, which allow ships further movement inland. Access to intermodal transportation, such as trains or trucks, are critical to a port, so that passengers and cargo can also move further inland beyond the port area. The ports of the United States handle more than 2 billion metric tons of domestic and import/export cargo annually. American ports are responsible for moving over 99 percent of the country's overseas cargo. This sound uses the following sound file from Freesound (http://www.freesound.org): 20091216.port.05.wav by dobroide