As dignitaries gathered at a container terminal on the Mobile waterfront in October, their surroundings testified to a grand vision and more than 15 years of rapid growth.
Cranes towered overhead, and row after row of stacked shipping containers filled acres of adjacent land. Those ubiquitous steel containers are vital to international commerce, particularly when it comes to consumer goods. Millions of them cycle between the United States, Europe and Asia every year.
They’re made to be moved easily from ships to trucks to trains, but it takes a container terminal with specialized facilities — such as those cranes — to make it happen. Throughout those 15 years, Mobile had been making it happen in a big way, repeatedly being ranked as one of the fastest-growing ports in the United States for container traffic…