Port of Baltimore

Helen Delich Bentley Port of Baltimore is a shipping port along the shores and branches of the Patapsco River in Baltimore, Maryland. The port includes facilities for cargo, especially roll-on/roll-off ships; and passenger facilities operated by the Maryland Port Administration (MPA), a unit of the Maryland Department of Transportation.The port was renamed for Helen Delich Bentley during a 2006 celebration of the port's 300th birthday.HistoryIn 1608, Captain John Smith traveled 170 miles from Jamestown to the upper Chesapeake Bay, leading the first European expedition to the Patapsco River, named after the native Algonquians who fished shellfish and hunted.English land grants 1661 were combined 1702 by James Carroll who named it Whetstone Point (now known as the residential and industrial area of Locust Point). The port was founded on this site in 1706 by the Maryland Colonial Assembly as a Port of Entry for the tobacco trade with England. In 1729 the point was incorporated into BaltimoreTown.Starting in 1776 local citizenry erected earthworks named Fort Whetstone for port defense during the American Revolutionary War, which was replaced in 1798 by Fort McHenry.