These gantry cranes are three of four that were servicing a Hapag Lloyd container ship at Terminal 18 on Harbor Island. During the daylight they are only mechanical work horses but at night they take on a magical quality of light and movement bringing goods into and out of the Port of Seattle at Terminal 18. Terminal 18 is the largest container terminal in Seattle and one of the largest in the nation. At 196 acres, it covers the majority of Harbor Island. It also features intermodal railway connectivity, enabling containers to be directly loaded to and from rail cars for the UPRR and BNSF railroads. Four berths can handle up to four thousand foot vessels along the 4,440 feet of dock, with a capacity for vessels drawing fifty feet of water at the container berths and forty feet at the breakbulk berths with seven gantry cranes. This facility used to be divided into two facilities, Terminal 18 to the north and Terminal 20 to the south end of the east side of the island, but they are now combined. There are currently eleven shipping lines who call at Terminal 18, among them Matson, NYK Line, and OOCL who have been customers for many, many years. The blue crescent shaped roof in the back ground is the top of Safeco Field, the stadium where the Seattle Mariners play major league baseball.
