The Port of Camden is situated on east bank of the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

in Camden and Gloucester City in southern New Jersey. It is one of several ports in the

Delaware Valley The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation and 68th largest city in the world as of 2020. The toponym Delaware Val ...

metro area port complex and is located near the mouth of Newtown Creek opposite the

Port of Philadelphia The Port of Philadelphia is located on the Delaware River in Philadelphia in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Generally the term applies to the publicly owned marine terminals located within Philadelphia city limits along west bank of the river. Th ...

. The port is one of the nation's largest for wood products, steel, cocoa and perishable fruit.

Shipping channel, air draft, port of entry

The port is approximately from the Atlantic Ocean at the entrance to the

Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is bordered inlan ...

. After 1942, the Delaware River Main Channel was maintained at a depth of . In a project completed in 2017, the federal navigation

shipping channel In physical geography, a channel is a type of landform consisting of the outline of a path of relatively shallow and narrow body of water or of other fluids (e.g., lava), most commonly the confine of a river, river delta or strait. The word is c ...

from Camden/Philadelphia was deepened to . Local pilotage is generally required for larger commercial vessels. The

air draft Air draft (or air draught) is the distance from the surface of the water to the highest point on a vessel. This is similar to the " deep draft" of a vessel which is measured from the surface of the water to the deepest part of the hull below th ...

of the port is 150 feet, restricted by the

Walt Whitman Bridge The Walt Whitman Bridge is a single-level suspension bridge spanning the Delaware River from Philadelphia in the west to Gloucester City in Camden County, New Jersey in the east. The bridge is named after the poet Walt Whitman, who resided i ...

. Downstream of the bridge air draft is 188 feet, restricted by

Delaware Memorial Bridge The Delaware Memorial Bridge is a dual-span suspension bridge crossing the Delaware River. The toll bridges carry Interstate 295 and U.S. Route 40 and is also the link between Delaware and New Jersey. The bridge was designed by the firm kn ...

It 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 ...

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturalizati ...

(USCIS) District 21, which covers New Jersey. The Delaware River port complex refers to the ports and energy facilities along the river in the tri-state PA- NJ- DE

region. They include the

Port of Salem The Port of Salem is a shallow-draft (16 feet) port in the vicinity of the Salem River Cut-Off on the Salem River in Salem, New Jersey in the United States about east of the Delaware River and about from the Atlantic Ocean. It was re-designate ...

, the Port of Wilmington, the

Port of Chester The Port of Chester is an American port on the west bank of the Delaware River in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Centered around Chester it ranges into Marcus Hook to the south and Eddystone to the north. It is part of the Delaware Valley port ...

, the

Port of Paulsboro The Port of Paulsboro is located on the Delaware River and Mantua Creek in and around Paulsboro, in Gloucester County, New Jersey, approximately from the Atlantic Ocean. Traditionally one of the nation's busiest for marine transfer operations, ...

, the

and the Port of Camden. Combined they create one of the largest shipping areas of the United States. In 2016, 2,427 ships arrived at Delaware River port facilities: Fruit ships were counted at 577, petroleum at 474, and containerized cargo at 431.

Historical shipbuilding and ferries

New York Shipbuilding The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short) was an American shipbuilding company that operated from 1899 to 1968, ultimately completing more than 500 vessels for the U.S. Navy, the United States Merchant Marine, the United ...

and

Dialogue & Company Dialogue & Company was a shipbuilding firm located in the Port of Camden on the Delaware River in New Jersey. It was founded by John H. Dialogue. Born in 1828, Dialogue moved at age 30 to Kaighn’s Point in Camden. In 1862, he and several part ...

were both located in the port. Much of the current port operations are located on what were once shipyards.

was further upstream. John H. Mathis & Company was a shipbuilding company founded around 1900, based at Cooper Point. Penn-Jersey Shipbuilding Corp. was also located at Cooper Point. The United States lightship Barnegat (LV-79), built in the city, is located in Cooper Point, and is considered threatened. Ferry service between Camden and Philadelphia existed for 264 years. The first commercial crossing of the Delaware was first established in 1688; the last ferry to depart the city was in 1952. The seasonal

RiverLink Ferry The RiverLink Ferry is a passenger ferry service in the United States. The ferry crosses the Delaware River, connecting the Camden Waterfront, in Camden, New Jersey, with Penn's Landing, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The ferry operates daily f ...

was established in 1999.

Operations and facilities

The semi-public

South Jersey Port Corporation South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC) is an independent public port authority which operates the ports along the eastern banks of Delaware River in the Delaware Valley region of southern New Jersey in the United States. Based in Camden, SJPC was ...

(SJPC) oversees a number of facilities, for which the Delaware River Stevedores handle much of the traffic. Additionally there are other privately run facilities in the port, including those of Holt Logistics, Joseph Oat Corporation, Holtech International, Mafco, EMR subsidiary Camden Iron and Steel and Camden Yards Steel. The Camden County MUA maintains a large treatment plant on the waterfront.

SJPC

Marine terminals operated by South Jersey Port Corporation (SJPC), which also oversees the

and the

*Balzano Terminal (formerly the Beckett Street Terminal) is a

bulk Bulk can refer to: Industry * Bulk cargo * Bulk liquids * Bulk mail * Bulk material handling * Bulk pack, packaged bulk materials/products * Bulk purchasing * Baking * Bulk fermentation, the period after mixing when dough is left alone to f ...

and break bulk cargo complex that handles wood products, steel products, cocoa beans, containers, iron ore, furnace slag, scrap metal and

containerized cargo Containerization is a system of intermodal freight transport using intermodal containers (also called shipping containers and International Organization for Standardization, ISO containers). Containerization is also referred as "Container St ...

*Broadway Terminal is a complex that handles

petroleum coke Petroleum coke, abbreviated coke or petcoke, is a final carbon-rich solid material that derives from oil refining, and is one type of the group of fuels referred to as cokes. Petcoke is the coke that, in particular, derives from a final cracki ...

furnace slag Slag is a by-product of smelting (Pyrometallurgy, pyrometallurgical) ores and used metals. Broadly, it can be classified as ferrous (by-products of processing iron and steel), ferroalloy (by-product of ferroalloy production) or Non-ferrous metal ...

, dolomite, other dry bulk items, steel products, wood products, minerals, cocoa beans, fresh fruit as well as

Holt Logistics and Holtec

Holt Logistics operates terminals in the port *Pier 5 Broadway Produce Terminal 28 Acres (11.3 ha) with a three reefer-building complex that handles bananas, pineapples, and other perishables *Gloucester Marine Terminal is a site which features the largest refrigerated capacity of any terminal in the United States and the largest rooftop photovoltaic installations in the USA It has four deep water berths and 12 dry/heated warehouses with more than 1,000,000 square feet of space and 13 reefer/frozen warehouses with 15 million cubic feet of space. Del Monte has been a presence in the port since 1989 and since 2010 a Gloucester. *

Holtec International Holtec International is a supplier of equipment and systems for the energy industry founded in Mount Laurel, New Jersey and based in Jupiter, Florida, United States. It specializes in the design and manufacture of parts for nuclear reactors. The ...

operates it corporate offices from new facilities from a 600,000-square-foot facility at the Broadway Terminal. In July 2014, the

New Jersey Economic Development Authority The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (EDA) is an independent government entity in the U.S. state of New Jersey dedicated to broadening and expanding the state's economic base. The EDA creates public-private partnerships to provide access ...

awarded the company a $260 million tax incentive to expand operations. Benjamin Franklin Bridge-3

Weeks Marine

Weeks Marine Weeks Marine is a marine construction and dredging contractor based in Cranford, NJ. It was founded by Francis Weeks and his son Richard B. Weeks in 1919 as the Weeks Stevedoring Company. Company Weeks has three key divisions—Construction, D ...

, a maritime salvage, construction, and transportation company, maintains facilities upstream of the

Benjamin Franklin Bridge The Benjamin Franklin Bridge, originally named the Delaware River Bridge and known locally as the Ben Franklin Bridge, is a suspension bridge across the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey. Owned and ...

at Pyne Point

Road

Delaware River Port Authority The Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA), officially the Delaware River Port Authority of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is a bi-state agency instrumentality created by a congressionally approved interstate compact between the governments of Penn ...

operates bridges in the port. The

crosses the Delaware River at the port as

Interstate 76 Interstate 76 may refer to: Interstate Highways in the United States * Interstate 76 (Colorado–Nebraska) * Interstate 76 (Ohio–New Jersey), running through Pennsylvania Video gaming * ''Interstate '76 ''Interstate '76'' is a vehicular ...

(I-76), which interchanges with Interstate 295. The

(

U.S. Route 30 U.S. Route 30 or U.S. Highway 30 (US 30) is an east–west main route in the system of the United States Numbered Highways, with the highway traveling across the northern tier of the country. With a length of , it is the third longest ...

is the north side of Camden. The North-South Freeway, which carries

Interstate 676 Interstate 676 (I-676) is an Interstate Highway that serves as a major thoroughfare through Center City Philadelphia, where it is known as the Vine Street Expressway, and Camden, New Jersey, where it is known as the northern segment of the ...

north to downtown Camden. Route 76C connector runs east to U.S. Route 130 and Route 168. County Routes

537 __NOTOC__ Year 537 ( DXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Second year after the Consulship of Belisarius (or, less frequently, year 1290 ...

, 543, 551 and 561 all travel through the center of the city.

Rail

Rail service to some parts of the port is within

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

South Jersey/Philadelphia Shared Assets Area Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail (reporting mark CRCX), an American railroad company. It operates three networks, the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Areas ...

. The port is located south of Pavonia Yard and the

Delair Bridge The Delair Bridge (officially the Delair Memorial Railroad Bridge) is a railroad bridge with a vertical-lift section that crosses the Delaware River between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Pennsauken Township, New Jersey, just south of the Betsy ...

, the most downstream

railroad bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

crossing the Delaware at Pennsuaken. The

Vineland Secondary The Vineland Secondary is a rail line owned, operated and maintained by Conrail Shared Assets Operations for the use of CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway. It begins at Pavonia Yard in Camden and heads south, with a spur serving the P ...

has a spur running along the port.

Norfolk Southern Railway The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31 ...

and

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

are accessible through Conrail switching operations.

Tourism and recreation

The Central Waterfront, with Wiggins Marina, lies upstream of the maritime and industrial facilities in the port. The

USS New Jersey (BB-62) USS ''New Jersey'' (BB-62) is an , and was the second ship of the United States Navy to be named after the US state of New Jersey. She was often referred to fondly as "Big J". ''New Jersey'' earned more battle stars for combat actions than the ...

is berthed between the two districts. The

BB&T Pavilion The Freedom Mortgage Pavilion is an outdoor amphitheatre and indoor theater complex in Camden, New Jersey located in the Camden Waterfront entertainment district on the Delaware River across from Philadelphia. Since it opened in June 1995, t ...

, Wiggins Park, and the

Adventure Aquarium The Adventure Aquarium, formerly the Thomas H. Kean New Jersey State Aquarium, is a for-profit educational entertainment attraction operated in Camden, New Jersey on the Delaware River Camden Waterfront by Herschend Family Entertainment. Origin ...

are located nearby.

Bergen Square Bergen Square, at the intersection of Bergen Avenue and Academy Street in Jersey City, is in the southwestern part of the much larger Journal Square district. A commercial residential area, it contains an eclectic array of architectural styl ...

and Waterfront South are two districts located to the east of the port. There has been some conflict with combining residential needs with port needs. The Camden Shipyard & Maritime Museum opened in 2016. Phoenix Park was developed in 2015 allowing for waterfront access for recreation in the midst of the maritime facilities. The Freedom Pier is a public waterfront promenade at the former Coast Guard Base Gloucester.

References

External links

* * *
Southern New Jersey's International SeaportsSouth Jersey Freight Transportation and Economic Development Assessment 2010Master Plan South Jersey Waterfront Delaware River Port Authority Southern New Jersey Waterfront Master January 11, 2006
* * * {{Camden, New Jersey

Port of Camden The Port of Camden is situated on east bank of the Delaware River in Camden and Gloucester City in southern New Jersey. It is one of several ports in the Delaware Valley metro area port complex and is located near the mouth of Newtown Creek op ...

Delaware River Camden Camden South Jersey Port Corporation Container terminals Camden, New Jersey Gloucester City, New Jersey