Port
The 20th century saw great changes in Ashtabula. Its access to Lake Erie and nearly 30 miles (48 km) of shoreline helped position Ashtabula as a major shipping and commercial center.
During the 1950s, the area experienced growth with its expanding chemical industry and increasing harbor activity, making Ashtabula one of the most important port cities of the Great Lakes. Historical industries in the area included a Rockwell International plant on Route 20 on the western side of Ashtabula that manufactured brakes for the Space Shuttle program and the extrusion of depleted and enriched uranium at the Reactive Metals Extrusion plant on East 21st Street.
Ashtabula Harbor hosts an annual Blessing of the Fleet community festival. The origin of the Blessing of the Fleet can be traced to Portuguese and Irish fisherman and tugmen who settled in Ashtabula. During the 1930s, the Blessing of the Fleet was a small, almost private affair in early April conducted by a few tugmen, their parish priest, and an acolyte. By 1950, it had become a public ceremony under the auspices of Mother of Sorrows parish. In 1974, the Blessing of the Fleet became a community affair involving all of Ashtabula's religious and harbor community.
The Coast Guard Station and the Harbor Museum help to preserve Ashtabula's maritime heritage.
Read more about this topic: Ashtabula, Ohio
Famous quotes containing the word port:
“In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The very best place to be in all the world is St. Mary’s parish, Jamaica. And the best spot in St. Mary’s is Port Maria, though all of St. Mary’s is fine. Old Maker put himself to a lot of trouble to make that part of the island of Jamaica, for everything there is perfect.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“It is by a mathematical point only that we are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave keeps the polestar in his eye; but that is sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we would preserve the true course.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)