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Dock Management Progress Section How Successful Dock Operators Have Met Problems of Giving Best Service to Ships Grain elevator at Norfolk erected by the city at a cost of $1,400,000 to diversify port facilities Norfolk Has Modern Terminal Facilities for Foreign Trade MONG the fast growing ports of A the Atlantic coast, Norfolk, the famous harbor of Hampton Roads occupies high rank. Nor- folk is situated midway of the coast and 15 miles from the Virginia capes. The tonnage of this port has in- creased more than tenfold in the last decade, and its possibilities for the future are indicated by the fact that every ship which entered and cleared during the entire year of 1925 could anchor in its waters at one time with- out causing congestion. The modern export, import and coastwise terminals at Norfolk are capable of serving all types of ves- sels expeditiously, and they are served by a belt line railroad which transportation experts have declared to be one of the most valuable as- sets possessed by any port or city in the country. Hampton Roads, which includes not The author, Charles H. Hoofnagle is director of the Norfolk-Portsmouth News bureau. BY CHARLES H. HOOFNAGLE only Norfolk, but Portsmouth and Newport News as well, has many ad- vantages. that make it the finest har- bor on the Atlantic coast and one of the two or three best in the entire world. The port is open the year round, is free from ice, dangerous currents and strong winds, and affords a safe an- chorage for an unlimited number of vessels. In fact, it could accommo- date the combined navies of the world simultaneously without congestion. There is a tidal range of only two and one-half feet, and a depth rang- ing from thirty to forty feet and upward. Forty Feet Depth of Water The channels to Norfolk-Ports- mouth have been improved to a depth of forty feet at mean low tide, seven hundred and fifty feet wide. The Thimble Shoals channel, lying be- tween Hampton Roads and the sea (lower Chesapeake bay and the At- 24 lantic ocean), has a controlling depth of forty feet at mean low tide, and is seven hundred and fifty feet wide. Hampton Roads proper, not includ- ing the deep water extent of the Elizabeth, James and Nansemond rivers, has an area of forty-one square miles, with extensive frontage having ready access to deep water. The natural configuration of the shore line, interrupted as it is by a num- ber of branching estuaries, has op- erated to reduce the possibility of the concentration of waterfront owner- ship in the hands of a few, and has obviated the necessity for crowded terminal development within a _ re- stricted zone. The waterfront of Norfolk-Ports- mouth harbor approximates 36 statute miles in length, all located along im- proved channels. Continuations of the improved channels upon which har- bor lines have been established are being used for industrial purposes. The people of the Hampton Roads