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So what exactly is a container terminal? A container terminal is part dock and part parking lot. Container terminals are where containers move from one form of transportation (a container ship, for example) to another (a truck or train). Ships dock at the terminal’s edge, where huge cranes lift containers on and off each ship. The containers can then either be held in the container yard until goods are ready to be delivered locally by truck or can be moved by train to a far away destination. Terminal 5 (T-5 for short) is APL’s home in Seattle. It’s where the Boomerang Box has sailed in and out of Seattle on its journeys over the last year. But even as the Boomerang Box — and thousands of other containers — have been moving in and out of Terminal 5, the terminal has been changing. Over the last five years, T-5 has been expanded from 83 to 160 acres, as big as 160 football fields. T-5 was expanded so that it could handle bigger ships, more containers, and, most important of all, so train tracks could be built right on the dock. Now, a container like the Boomerang Box can be unloaded from a ship, put directly on a train, and then whisked across the country. Why is that important? Well, as more and more goods are traded around the world, we’ve got to have better ways to move them around. T-5 does that in Seattle. So the opening of the bigger, better terminal was a real celebration. Even the Vice President came to the party. But what were kids doing there? Trish, Kavan, and Jennifer and their friends in the Delridge Youth Group all live near T-5. But they didn’t have any idea what happened at a container terminal... and they were curious. So, this past summer, the kids in the Delridge Youth Group spent a month with artist Darwin Nordin building a model of T-5. While building their model, they learned all about how a container terminal works and what it does. In fact, the kids became such experts on container terminals that they were invited to the T-5 grand opening celebration to present their model and to explain to the Vice President and US Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater just what happens at a container terminal. “This project has been really cool,” said Jennifer. “We learned how to build ships, trucks, and trains, and all about what they do.” Not to mention getting to meet the Vice President on your 12th birthday! |
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