Truckin' on the Western Branch

In 2007 the MAERSK Terminal, a deep-water, automated marine container terminal, later known as the APM Virginia Terminal, opened in West Norfolk. It was the third largest facility on the East Coast following New York and Savannah and was equipped with remote rail-mounted gantry cranes—enabling safer, more eco-friendly operations. The terminal, a U.S. Customs–designated port of entry, was leased to the Virginia Port Authority in a controversial agreement in 2010. Virginia funded millions of dollars in railroad and transportation improvements to serve the terminal whose giant cranes are a familiar sight on the horizon along the Western Freeway. Decorated with lights over the Christmas holidays, the Suez class cranes resemble huge candy canes. The terminal sits on almost 600 acres, 230 acres of which are operational. VIT (Virginia International Terminals) operates the terminal on behalf of the Virginia Port Authority.

Virginia International Gateway, a newly formed port operating company, is expected to acquire the terminal in late 2014 and to rename it Virginia International Gateway.

According to Joe Harris, Vice President, Communications and spokesperson for the Port of Virginia, when the sale between APM and Virginia International Gateway is completed, Virginia International Terminals, LLC, the Virginia Port Authority’s operating entity, will continue as the terminal operator with Virginia International Gateway as the new landlord. Craney Island will remain a long-term project for The Port of Virginia.

Robert “Bobby” Bray retired in 2007 after 29 years as executive director of the Virginia Port Authority.

“It was huge for Virginia to have the Maersk come in,” he said. “It’s a statement to the world of our importance in international trade. Because of the container ships you have distribution centers and they have a significant impact on our community. The terminal didn’t reach its potential until the railway got built in the middle of the freeway and Craney Island is the next big thing.” Jeff Keever said, “The future of the port will benefit Portsmouth and surrounding communities, bringing in white color jobs with importers/exporters. The Craney Island Marine Terminal will be 2½ miles offshore on select fill and will offer some real business-growth opportunities to the region. No other port on the East Coast has the same potential, at the hub of the East Coast, with deep water, no bridges, dual rail access, and great highways.”

Bill Thiesen, Coast Guard historian. Image by Sheally

Coast Guard Support Center Portsmouth In 1870 Craney Island was a boatyard for the Lighthouse Service. In 1939 the Bureau of Lighthouse Service was absorbed into the Coast Guard, locally the Portsmouth Coast Guard Base in downtown Portsmouth. In the 1960s both the Portsmouth base and the Norfolk Coast Guard Station were deteriorating. A new, combined base at Tanner’s Point in Norfolk was under consideration but finally, in 1967, a 187.3-acre site was agreed upon, adjacent to the Navy’s Fuel Depot at Craney Island, and the “New Portsmouth Base” established there as a multi-mission unit. At that time the site was heavily wooded, according to Coast Guard historian Bill Thiesen. Two small cemeteries were recorded on the land plats, but no remains were found. In 1969 an access road was completed from West Norfolk Road to the base. After a 1971 groundbreaking, the base was developed in three phases. Phase one was difficult— equipment mired in mud, large snakes and other wildlife wandered, displaced from their habitats. Over the next five years an infrastructure—piers, small boat harbors, buildings, parking lots, water distribution system and other utilities—took shape.

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