Port Canaveral, 1953 to today
The Navy proposed a harbor at the cape in 1878, the state created the Canaveral Port Authority in 1939, and the port was dedicated on November 4, 1953. Fishing came first, then cargo, the space program and, from 1982, homeported cruise ships.
Port Canaveral was a long time coming. According to the port’s historical marker at Glen Cheek Drive, the Navy proposed a harbor at the cape to Congress in 1878. The Florida Legislature established the Canaveral Port Authority in 1939, the Army Corps of Engineers recommended building the port in 1941, Congress approved it in 1945, and construction began in 1950. U.S. Senator Spessard L. Holland dedicated the port on November 4, 1953.
Fish, oil and orange juice
The port’s first industry was commercial fishing, the Canaveral Port Authority says. Cargo ships followed within a few years, carrying oil and newsprint, and in 1958 tankers began carrying central Florida’s orange juice to New York. By 1966 a million tons of cargo a year moved through the port.
The space program’s harbor
The port worked for the launch range from the start. In 1961, the port authority says, Alan Shepard’s capsule was retrieved after the first American spaceflight by vessels homeported at Port Canaveral. In 1965 the Canaveral Lock opened, connecting the port to the Banana River; it was designed so the huge Saturn rockets could pass through. During the Space Shuttle program, the solid rocket boosters recovered at sea came back to the space center through the port.
Cruise ships
Cruise ships started calling in the 1970s, when port-of-call lines discovered the attractions of central Florida. The first cruise ship homeported at Port Canaveral sailed in 1982, the same year the port’s first dedicated cruise terminal opened. The port authority calls it one of the world’s busiest cruise ports.
Further Reading
- Cape Canaveral by Ray Osborne
Sources
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