Birmingham has a story to tell. And for a long time, it wasn’t being told.
In this video, port leaders, Birmingham mayors, and local commissioners share what Birmingham’s Port has been, what it is today, and what it can become. In their own words, they make the case for why this stretch of the Black Warrior River matters more than most people realize.
“Today, Birmingham has a new kind of vision,” says Former Mayor Dr. Richard Arrington Jr. “We’ve got something we can sell, Birmingham has a story to tell.”
But first, we go back to 1920 where the story began. Birmingport connected Alabama’s steel industry to the world, helping earn Birmingham the nickname of the Pittsburgh of the South.
“Our ability to export those goods around the world, around the globe, really put Birmingham on the map,” says Mayor Randall Woodfin. That legacy of inland port connectivity is exactly what BJCPA is working to revive and expand.
The infrastructure never went away. What it needed was investment, vision, and proof of concept. David Russell, BJCPA’s Executive Director, offers a telling example: within 45 days of opening the port’s new 25,000-square-foot warehouse, four customers showed up, and one took it to capacity.
“This proof of concept shows that this is a need,” Russell says. “There’s an opportunity.”
That opportunity is grounded in geography Birmingham can’t replicate anywhere else. As Russell explains, Birmingport is the only inland port in the Southeast with connectivity to three Class I railroads, a five-spoke interstate system, air cargo shipping, and the Gulf Coast.
For manufacturers and supply chain operators, that multimodal reach directly addresses what Former Mayor William Bell identifies as the defining cost pressure any business faces.
“The major cost that any manufacturer has is the shipping of their products within the region and throughout the world.” Birmingham’s Port solves for that in ways no other single location in the region can.
The economic case is compelling on its own. Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens puts it plainly.
“I promise you that the return on the investment in this area would be much greater than it would be in many other areas of the state.”
Mayor Woodfin goes further, describing idle industrial land around the port that could be reactivated, with a return he calls “tenfold.”
But the vision goes beyond logistics and ROI. Mayor Woodfin describes driving the route to the port and thinking about the homeowners along the way, people standing on their porches hoping for something better for their families.
“People don’t just want to work,” he says. “They want a quality job. They want to be able to take care of their family with their income. I think opportunity at the port literally presents that in their lap.”
From Arrington Jr., who helped lay the groundwork for the port decades ago, to the leaders managing its growth today, every voice points toward the same conclusion: Birmingport is a driving force.
“Start in Birmingham, you can go anywhere in the world,” said Russell.
Watch the full video to hear the complete story.