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The Port of Oakland was the first major port on the Pacific Coast of the United States to build terminals for container ships.
In 1852, the year of Oakland's incorporation as a town by the California State Legislature, large shipping wharves were constructed along the Oakland Estuary, which was dredged to create a viable shipping channel. 22 years later, in 1874, the previously dredged shipping channel was deepened to make Oakland a deep water port. However, the port was not officially named the Port of Oakland until 1927, under the leadership of the newly-organized Board of Port Commissioners.
In 1962, the Port of Oakland began to admit container ships. Container traffic greatly increased the amount of cargo loaded and unloaded in the Port: by the late 1960s, the Port of Oakland was the second largest port in the world in container tonnage. However, depth and navigation restrictions in San Francisco Bay limited its capacity, and by the late 1970s it had been supplanted by the port of Los Angeles and Long Beach as the major container port on the West Coast.
However, in the early 2000s, severe congestion at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach has caused some trans-Pacific shippers to move some of their traffic over to Oakland (especially if the final destination is not in Southern California but lies farther east). In the meantime, Los Angeles and Long Beach continue to work on new measures for reducing congestion, like hiring more workers and extending shipping hours. The situation returned to normal after Christmas 2004.
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