The Port Authority Celebrates the Arrival of the Largest Cargo Vessel to Ever Call Upon the Port of NYC & NJ

Image courtesy of the Port Authority

The 14,414 TEU CMA CGM T. Roosevelt is the largest cargo container vessel to ever come through the Port of New York and New Jersey. On Thursday, September 7 at the APM Terminal in Elizabeth, New Jersey, the T. Roosevelt made its maiden voyage to the East Coast’s largest port to highlight the completion of the Bayonne Bridge Navigational Clearance Project.

The Bayonne Bridge Navigational Clearance Project involved raising the bridge’s clearance capacity from 151 feet to 215 feet, accommodating vessels up to 18,000 TEUs (Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit used to measure the capacity of a container ship, a container terminal and the statistics of the container transit in a port). Previously, the 151 foot clearance capacity allowed for a maximum vessel size of 9,800 TEUs to pass under and travel to port terminals in Newark, Elizabeth and Staten Island.

At 14,414 TEUs, the T. Roosevelt is certainly the largest vessel to ever call upon the Port Authority, but on August 22, it was also also the largest ship ever to cross the Panama Canal. At 12,028 feet, the T. Roosevelt is 4 times larger than the Statue of Liberty, representing more than 4 football fields in length.

To celebrate the completion of the project, the Port Authority chose the vessel to inaugurate the new Bayonne Bridge. The port of call ceremony was documented with full excitement by the Port Authority on their twitter.

Next, check out the The Top 10 Secrets of the Bayonne Bridge Connecting Staten Island and New Jersey and The Top 10 Secrets of NYC’s Port Authority Bus Terminal.