Large container ships, even super-post-Panamax vessels like the 1300-foot-long CMA CGM Marco Polo which cruised into Charleston’s harbor this May during high tide, will soon have safe passage here at any tide, fully-loaded.
These improvements in navigation are due to more than a century of continuous deepening and maintenance dredging led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District and the South Carolina Ports Authority’s strategic vision, as well as the District’s most recent deepening project, Post 45.
When the Corps initially began dredging Charleston Harbor in the mid-nineteenth century, principal entry channels were as shallow as 12 feet deep at low tide, forcing approaching ships into treacherous entry procedures and, over time, closing the harbor off from larger, more modern vessels and an ever-globalizing trade network.