The Port of Omaha is a

port of entry In general, a port of entry (POE) is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has border security staff and facilities to check passports and visas and to inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not imported. Internati ...

in the United States with facilities on the west side of the Missouri River in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

, Nebraska. The official address is located at 5229 Boeing Court in

East Omaha East Omaha is a geographically designated community located in Omaha, Nebraska. Located three miles (5 km) from downtown Omaha, East Omaha is the site of Eppley Omaha International Airport, Omaha's main airport, and Carter Lake. This area was ...

. The Port was formally sanctioned by the U.S. Congress in 1888.

1856–1949

Founded immediately on the settlement of Omaha in 1856, the Port of Omaha was surveyed by Benjamin H. Barrows. Originally located at the foot of Davenport Street in

Downtown Omaha Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, U.S. state of Nebraska. The boundaries are Omaha, Nebraska, Omaha's 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east and ...

, in recent years that site has been redeveloped as a boat launch and docking location called Miller's Landing. In addition to originally handling outbound

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

shipments of grain and passenger boats, the Port also handled inbound shipments of steel and

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

. Starting in the 1930s the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

planned to channelize the Missouri River, and business leaders in Omaha immediately began clamoring for increased

traffic to the city. In 1937 the

Omaha Chamber of Commerce The Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce is the chamber of commerce in Omaha, Nebraska. When United States Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke to the chamber in 2007, his comments were noted for his continued endorsement of globalization. I ...

began lobbying the Nebraska State Legislature to create a dock authority that could take funds from the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recove ...

to support the development of the Port property. The Union Pacific Railroad, based in Omaha, supported the move believing it would generate more business for its tracks. In 1938

John Latenser, Sr. John Latenser Sr. (1858–1936) was an American architect whose influential public works in Omaha, Nebraska, numbered in the dozens. His original name was Johann Laternser. Many of the buildings Latenser designed, including public and private, ...

drew up plans, which were subsequently submitted and denied by the PWA. Subsequent bids to the

Reconstruction Finance Corporation The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was a government corporation administered by the United States Federal Government between 1932 and 1957 that provided financial support to state and local governments and made loans to banks, railroads, mortgag ...

and the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

failed as well, leaving the city without adequate docking facilities when barge traffic opened in 1940.

1950–present

There was once a spur railroad line to the location, and in the 1950s there were plans to develop the site with modern storage buildings and a crane for unloading; however, those plans did not come to fruition. As part of its Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository plan, the

U.S. Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and manages the research and development of nuclear power and nuclear weapons in the United States. ...

proposes using the Port to receive up to 125 barge shipments carrying giant high-level radioactive waste containers up the Missouri River from the

Cooper Nuclear Station Cooper Nuclear Station (CNS) is a boiling water reactor (BWR) type nuclear power plant located on a site near Brownville, Nebraska between Missouri River mile markers 532.9 and 532.5, on Nebraska's border with Missouri. It is the largest sing ...

, which is located at Brownville, Nebraska."The Yucca Mountain dump plan would launch up to 125 barges of deadly high-level radioactive waste onto the Missouri River,"
Nuclear Information & Resource Service. Retrieved 1/26/08. A new, 11-mile segment of trail scheduled for the Omaha riverfront will provide the opportunity for recreation within sight of the Missouri River. The trail will stretch from the Port of Omaha to N.P. Dodge Park. The

Missouri River Pedestrian Bridge The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge is a footbridge across the Missouri River between Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Omaha, Nebraska. It opened on September 28, 2008. Interest in a landmark bridge across the Missouri River arose after Omaha and Council ...

will cross the Missouri next to the Port across to Playland Park in Council Bluffs.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Port of Omaha Missouri River Buildings and structures in Omaha, Nebraska Transportation in Omaha, Nebraska Ports and harbors of Nebraska River ports of the United States Waterways in Omaha, Nebraska 1856 establishments in Nebraska Territory

1856–1949

1950–present

See also

References