I Was Wrong - on something important

Back shortly after the turn of the millenium I attended several transportation conferences and made a point of asking speakers if 'There are too many ports". I also, made some comments on various papers, presentations, etc. to that effect. I specifically used the example of Florida, which had 10 seaports and the Mississippi river, which had a number of River ports. It seems I was wrong on the Florida issue, although maybe right on the Mississippi river issue. The reason I was wrong about Florida is that I did not foresee that extent to which the 10 ports could specialize so each would contribute enough economic benefit to justify the landside investment that Florida and the USA would have to make. Also, I did not foresee the extent to which the capacity of the west coast ports, specifically LA and Long Beach would be constrained by various policies that limited their operational efficiency. This capacity problem on the west coast has made the east coast ports more impor