The Port of Omaha is a port of entry

Port of entry

In general, a port of entry is a place where one may lawfully enter a country. It typically has a staff of people who check passports and visas and inspect luggage to assure that contraband is not imported. International airports are usually ports of entry, as are road and rail crossings on a...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 with facilities on the west side of the Missouri River

Missouri River

The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...

 in Omaha

Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...

, Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

. The official address is located at 5229 Boeing Court in East Omaha. The Port was formally sanctioned by the U.S. Congress in 1888.

About

Founded immediately on the settlement of Omaha in 1856, the Port of Omaha was surveyed by Benjamin H. Barrows. Originally located at the foot of Davenport Street in Downtown Omaha

Downtown Omaha

Downtown Omaha is the central business, government and social core of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, and is located in Omaha, Nebraska. The boundaries are 20th Street on the west to the Missouri River on the east and the centerline of Leavenworth Street on the south to the centerline...

, in recent years that site has been redeveloped as a boat launch and docking location called Miller's Landing. In addition to originally handling outbound barge

Barge

A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...

 shipments of grain

GRAIN

GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems. Our support takes the form of independent research and analysis, networking at local, regional and...

 and passenger boats, the Port also handled inbound shipments of steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

 and asphalt

Asphalt

Asphalt or , also known as bitumen, is a sticky, black and highly viscous liquid or semi-solid that is present in most crude petroleums and in some natural deposits, it is a substance classed as a pitch...

.

Starting in the 1930s the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned to channelize the Missouri River, and business leaders in Omaha immediately began clamoring for increased barge

Barge

A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Some barges are not self-propelled and need to be towed by tugboats or pushed by towboats...

 traffic to the city. In 1937 the Omaha Chamber of Commerce began lobbying the Nebraska State Legislature to create a dock authority that could take funds from the Public Works Administration

Public Works Administration

The Public Works Administration , part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression...

 to support the development of the Port property. The Union Pacific Railroad, based in Omaha, supported the move believing it would generate more business for its tracks. In 1938 John Latenser, Sr.

John Latenser, Sr.

John Latenser, Sr. was a Liechtenstein-born American architect whose influential public works in Omaha, Nebraska numbered in the dozens. His original name was Johann Laternser....

 drew up plans, which were subsequently submitted and denied by the PWA. Subsequent bids to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

The Reconstruction Finance Corporation was an independent agency of the United States government, established and chartered by the US Congress in 1932, Act of January 22, 1932, c. 8, 47 Stat. 5, during the administration of President Herbert Hoover. It was modeled after the War Finance Corporation...

 and the Works Progress Administration

Works Progress Administration

The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...

 failed as well, leaving the city without adequate docking facilities when barge traffic opened in 1940.

A spur railroad line once shot to the location, and in the 1950s there were plans to develop the site with modern storage buildings and a crane for unloading; however, those plans did not come to fruition.

As part of its Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository plan, the U.S. Department of Energy proposes using the Port to receive up to 125 barge shipments carrying giant high-level radioactive waste containers up the Missouri River from the Cooper Nuclear Station

Cooper Nuclear Station

Cooper Nuclear Station is a boiling water reactor type nuclear power plant located on a 1,251-acre site near Brownville, Nebraska between Missouri River mile markers 532.9 and 532.5...

, which is located at Brownville

Brownville, Nebraska

Brownville is a village in Nemaha County, Nebraska, United States. The population was 146 at the 2000 census.- History :Established in 1854 and incorporated in 1856, Brownville was the largest town in the Nebraska Territory, with a population of 1,309 by 1880. Bordering slave-holding Missouri, the...

, Nebraska

Nebraska

Nebraska is a state on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States. The state's capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha, on the Missouri River....

.

A new, 11 mile segment of trail scheduled for the Omaha riverfront will provide the opportunity for recreation within sight of the Missouri River. The trail will stretch from the Port of Omaha to N.P. Dodge Park. The Missouri River Pedestrian Bridge

Missouri River Pedestrian Bridge

The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge is a footbridge across the Missouri River between Council Bluffs, Iowa and Omaha, Nebraska. It opened on 28 September 2008....

will cross the Missouri next to the Port across to Playland Park in Council Bluffs.