…the New York Port Authority saw the future and committed to building container ports at Newark and Elizabeth in New Jersey (which played a key role in Malcolm McLean's success). In contrast the antiquated piers in Brooklyn and Manhattan, connected to railways only by lightering carriages across the harbour and with congested truck access routes, were doomed; with them went a swathe of local manufacturing. [T]he effects of containerization on some of the world's ports … In some cases [were] dictated by geography (the end of London's Docks, the rise of Rotterdam) and in other cases by first-mover advantage (Oakland and Felixstowe became huge container ports largely by luck). Containerization also played a central role in the prosperity of Singapore and Hong Kong (which have only just been passed by Shanghai and Shenzhen as the world's busiest container ports).
Danny Yee, reviewing The Box by Marc Levinson
