The Benjamin Franklin is big. In fact, it’s longer than the Empire State building, wider than a football field and if all 18,000 TEU were laid end to end, the containers would stretch 68 miles. Yep, that’s pretty big alright.
I got to witness the ship up close and personal as it was docked at Terminal 18 in the Port of Seattle this week. Seattle was one of two stops the Benjamin Franklin made in its journey to the US. It also visited the Port of Long Beach making it the largest container ship to ever officially dock in a US port.
Being next to it, our little boat completely paled in comparison – a pretty amazing, and significant, site to see. It was hard enough to fit the whole ship in the photo frame let alone think about how much it could be carrying in each and every container.
It will be interesting to see what future big ships visit the Port of Seattle, and other terminals in the US, as they continue preparing to accept ships of this size.
Meanwhile, we’ll keep our eyes on our neighbors at T-18.
Check it out for yourselves. Photos taken by Andrew Greenfield, Bruce Kuenzi and Lindsey Imbier.
