Port of South Louisiana

The Port of South Louisiana stretches for some 50 miles along the lower Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, and ranks among the largest ports in the Western Hemisphere by tonnage. Unlike container ports, it handles enormous volumes of bulk cargo - grain pouring down from the Midwest, crude oil, chemicals, and coal - loaded and unloaded at dozens of docks and grain elevators lining the river.

It is the seaward end of the vast Mississippi River system, the funnel through which much of America's farm belt ships its corn and soybeans to the world. The river here is deep enough for oceangoing ships yet more than a hundred miles from the open Gulf, a reminder of how the Mississippi turns the middle of the continent into coastline. The surrounding "Chemical Corridor" is also one of the densest concentrations of industry in the country.

• Louisiana
  The Pelican State, where the Mississippi meets the Gulf related
• The Mississippi River
  The great river that drains the American heartland related