These are visionary proposals for a new American maritime system — 15 deepwater super-ports, each dredged to 24 meters and fully automated. We've taken each one seriously and cross-referenced it against real engineering facts: what dredging actually costs, how deep real ports go, how long environmental review really takes, and where the economics actually work. Some of these are genuinely buildable. Some are beautiful fantasy. Here's the honest version of each.
Every port below is scored against reality: real channel depths, real dredging budgets, real permitting timelines, real labor politics. Click through for the full breakdown — what it would do, pros and cons, feasibility, and an aerial mock-up of the finished build.
Feasibility judgments are editorial assessments based on public data: USACE dredging records, port authority TEU statistics, NEPA review timelines, and utility grid capacity reports. Proposal specs ($ figures, 24-meter drafts, personnel counts) come from the Sovereign Port Authority vision documents. We update these as facts change — optimism deserves fresh numbers. Now read what's slowing the real builds down →