On the 15th of October, 2004, when entering the Port of LA/Long Beach, the giant MSC Texas passed under the Gerald Desmond Bridge. It was an impressive and an unforgettable scene. The MSC Texas would be the first of many such giants to arrive and offload Asian-made goods, and the maritime experts toasted the occasion.

Remembering that event prompted a dream last night. We could see the MSC Texas once again on an inaugural mission. This time it was steaming up the Delaware River preparing to dock at the newly opened “3,500,000 TEU”-sized container terminal in the Port of Philadelphia.

The MSC Texas steamed proudly on.

But this wasn’t a dream … it was a nightmare. Political influence, RHIP … call it what you want … had overruled the findings of the GAO, the EPA and noted economists, and hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars had been committed to pay for the dredging of the Delaware River.

And the MSC Texas steamed proudly on.

It was now 2010 and many people were cheering the passage of this enormous vessel. Among them were the “100,000″ recently employed workers the consultants had prophesied. Just as many citizens were downcast, however, because along with the multitude of alarming environmental catastrophes that the Delaware River Deepening project had caused, unforeseen traffic gridlock had sprung up because of disruptive “infrastructure upgrading” demanded by this lookalike NY/NJ container port. “What,” they were asking themselves, “will we be faced with when this operation is in full swing?”

But the MSC Texas steamed proudly on.

It had been an unusually long approach for the vessel. This was the very first time a ship of this size was required to service a port so far from a sea buoy. A 108-mile ever-narrowing channel was a challenge never before demanded of a captain and pilot and called for extreme patience and caution.

And the MSC Texas steamed proudly, and slowly, on.

Then suddenly the “All Engines Stop”!! sound emanated from the vessel’s bridge. Immediately ahead was a bridge of another type. It was the Walt Whitman Bridge. No thought had been given to the height of that structure by over-enthusiastic maritime consultants because their only concern during the “backyard brawl” was the dredging issue. They had completely overlooked the fact that the Walt Whitman Bridge was only 150′ above the river’s Mean Low Water mark, (with the Ben Franklin Bridge beyond being a mere 135′ above MLW). Megaships like the MSC Texas are considerably taller than those heights, with the Texas, in fact, towering 196′ above MLW!

Ooops!! … was the next sound emanating from the vessel’s bridge.