The Port of Toledo lies at the mouth of the Maumee River at the southwestern tip of Lake Erie in northwestern Ohio. About 75 kilometers southwest of the Port of Detroit (in Michigan) and 83 kilometers northwest of the Port of Huron (in Ohio), the Port of Toledo is the seat of Lucas County and the heart of a large metropolitan area. In 2000, the Port of Toledo was home to more than 313 thousand people, and over 659 thousand lived in the metropolitan area.

The Port of Toledo is a major Great Lakes seaport. Until the coming of the Industrial Revolution, the port was the mainstay of its economy. When automobiles were invented, the Port of Toledo became better known for industrial manufacturing. Chrysler and General Motors both have plants in the metropolitan area, and the Port of Toledo is a center for the manufacture of auto parts. The Port of Toledo is also home to several important companies, including Owens Corning and the Dana Corporation, and it is a leader in the glass industry. The Port of Toledo is a retail center and transportation hub. In addition to its seaport, the Port of Toledo is the United States' third busiest rail center and a major center for air cargo transportation.

Europeans first came to the Toledo area to establish Forth Industry in 1794 after the Battle of Fallen Timbers, where the US Army soundly defeated the Western Lakes Confederacy, an alliance of Native American tribes. The Confederacy included members of the Delaware, Ottawa, Miami, Ojibwa, Wyandot, Potawatomi, and Mingo Nations.

Many white settlers left the area during the War of 1812. In 1817, a group from Cincinnati bought an almost four square kilometer tract of land on the Swan Creek, naming it Port Lawrence, while a second group founded the town of Vistula to the immediate north.

In 1825, when the Ohio legislature decided to build the Miami and Erie Canal to connect Cincinnati to Lake Erie, many towns along the Maumee River competed to be the last stop for the canal on Lake Erie. In 1833, the towns of Port Lawrence and Vistula merged to gain a competitive edge for the canal. The new combined city was named Toledo. While Toledo was not selected, the town of Manhattan was – just a half mile to the north.

At first, growth for the Port of Toledo was slow. In 1835, just over 1200 people lived there, and the population hardly changed for several years. When the canal was finished in 1843, canal boats were too large for the shallow waters at Manhattan, and the Port of Toledo was born.

By 1860, almost 14 thousand people lived in the Port of Toledo, and the city consumed Manhattan by the 1880s. During the late 1800s, railroads began to compete with the canals as the mode of transportation. The Port of Toledo was soon the hub for several railroads with a fast-growing industrial community made up of companies that made furniture, carriages, glass, and beer. Immigrants were attracted to the Port of Toledo by the new factory jobs opening.

By 1880, the Port of Toledo was one of Ohio's biggest cities, and it continued to grow rapidly into the early 20th Century. Introduced by Michael Owens and Edward Libbey, glass-making became an important part of the economy.

Because the local economy had become dependent on manufacturing, the Great Depression brought severe hardship to the Port of Toledo. Growth slowed dramatically, and jobs were scarce until World War II. The Port of Toledo became a production center during World War II. The Willys Jeep was manufactured there among many other wartime products.

Today, the Port of Toledo is an important industrial, commercial, and transportation center for the north central United States. The port is connected to the St. Lawrence Seaway that brings traffic from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The Port of Toledo handles huge volumes of bituminous coal, and its free trade zone handles large amounts of grain, machinery and tools, metal ores, vehicles, and industrial equipment. The industrial profile of the Port of Toledo is diverse and contains makers of glass, cars (Jeeps are still made there), auto parts, furniture, cabinets, rubber, plastics, machinery, tools, and petroleum products.

The Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority governs and operates the Port of Toledo. Founded in 1955, it was the first port authority in the State of Ohio. (Today, there are over 20 port authorities in the state.) The port authority is responsible for three areas: maritime and aviation transportation and development.

The Port of Toledo is the largest seaport by area on the Great Lakes, and it is well-placed as an inland distribution center linked to North American markets by rail, road, water, air, and pipeline. The international seaport is trading partner to Mexico, Canada, Europe, Russia, and Asia.

The Port of Toledo offers over 11 kilometers of seaway draft waterfront with direct links to the full range of transportation modes. The Port of Toledo handles all types of cargo, including bulk, breakbulk, containers, and project cargo. Cargoes range from corn to coal and metal products, and the Port of Toledo offers a team of experienced stevedores and professionals able to provide complete and outstanding services to their customers. The Port of Toledo Shipyard contains dry dock and a high-bay fabrication shop to repair, maintain, inspect, and construct vessels.

The Grain and Aggregates Complex at the Port of Toledo handles corn, wheat, and soybeans at three riverfront grain terminals with capacity to store over 35 million cubic meters of cargo. The Toledo area has total grain storage capacity for more than 88 million cubic meters. The Andersons, Kuhlman Drive Facility can accommodate vessels up to 304.8 meters long with alongside depth of 8.1 meters, and it has storage capacity for over 11 million cubic meters. It is served by direct rail with a 65-car track loading capacity. The Andersons, Edwin Drive Facility in the Port of Toledo can accommodate vessels to 274.3 meters long, and capacity to store over nine million cubic meters, and is served by direct rail with 100-car track loading capacity.

The ADM Grain Company facility in the Port of Toledo has two berths with capacity to serve all seaway draft ships. The facility can load vessels at 3000 metric tons per hour and can serve self-unloading vessels at a rate of 1600 metric tons per hour. The ADM facility has capacity to store 330 thousand metric tons and offers 228 storage bins to segregate commodities.

The Hansen Mueller Company's Port of Toledo Facility processes oat and barley cargoes, with capability to clean, bag, grind, process, and store bulk grain cargoes. Kraft Foods' facility at the Port of Toledo, which serves self-unloading lake trading vessels and barges, has capacity for over eight million metric tons of grain.

Cement cargoes at the Port of Toledo are handled by three operators: St. Marys Cement Inc., Kuhlman Cement, and Lafarge Cement. St. Marys Cement's dock is 80.8 meters long with seaway draft and storage capacity for about 13 thousand metric tons. Lafarge Cement, a wholesale cement distribution facility, offers 158.5 meters of dock for standard use with draft of 5.8 meters at dock's edge and 9.1 meters at the channel. The Lafarge facility has capacity for 10.9 metric tons of cargo.

Arms Dock handles aggregates at the Port of Toledo, with 6.1 hectares of paved storage and 5.4 thousand square meters of warehouse capacity. The facility has on-dock rail connections with CSX and in-house trucking for bulk materials. Midwest Terminals operates a rail ballast dock of 609.6 meters and draft of 8.2 meters. The facility covers 6.1 hectares and offers on-dock rail service. The City Dock contains bulk storage of salt for use by the city.

The Port of Toledo boasts a world-class Coal and Iron Ore Center. Its modern facilities at the mouth of the Maumee River have one of the world's greatest capacity for handling these products. The facilities serve self-unloading lake vessels of up to 304.8 meters long from Lake Superior and overseas ports, and the ore goes directly to steel mills in Ohio.

Coal is loaded at the Port of Toledo CSX Transportation Docks. The CSX coal-loading facility contains a 304+ meter dock with seaway draft and on-dock rail service. The CSX iron ore receiving facility in the Port of Toledo serves self-unloading vessels at a 304+ meter dock with seaway draft. The iron ore facility has on-ground capacity for one million tons of cargo, and handling capacity for up to six million tons a year.

The Port of Toledo's Overseas Cargo Center is an important intermodal hub that serves the Midwest United States with connections to marine, road, rail, and air transportation. The 60-hectare cargo center borders over 1.5 kilometers of straight-line wharf on the mouth of the Maumee River on Lake Erie. The Cargo Center at the Port of Toledo handles widest variety of cargoes of the Great Lakes ports, and it offers abundant covered and open storage. The Cargo Center is a foreign trade zone area, and the port authority will customize sites for specific international trade needs.

The Port of Toledo handles general cargoes that include bulk, breakbulk, heavy-lift and project cargoes, containers, metals, steel, and lumber. Some of the grain cargoes through the Port of Toledo include corn, beans, wheat, oats, fertilizers, and distillers dried grains. The Port of Toledo handles a wide range of liquid cargoes that include jet fuel, biofuels, and liquid asphalt. Aggregate cargoes include sand, salt, stone, rail ballast, and many others.

General cargo facilities in the Port of Toledo are operated by Midwest Terminals of Toledo International and Kuhlman. The Midwest Terminal complex at the mouth of the Maumee River covers over 44 hectares of land, including more than 62 thousand square meters of warehouse, including temperature controlled space. The complex contains seven berths on 1.3 thousand meters of dock and is equipped with the latest equipment to provide efficient service. On-dock rails serve all berths, and the complex is protected by a comprehensive security system. Part of the Port of Toledo Foreign Trade Zone #8, the Midwest Terminals facility is listed on the London Metal Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Kuhlman general cargo facility contains about 200 meters of berthing space, over one hectare of covered warehouse with segregated bins, and almost six hectares of outside dock storage.

Five operators handle petroleum products. BP-Husky Refining LLC operates the Toledo Refinery Marine Dock in the Foreign Trade Zone. Among others, the facility handles gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel and is equipped with barge and pipeline access. Arc Terminals Holdings LLC-Toledo operates a petroleum products distribution center. Shelly Liquid Division handles specialty asphalt products and is served by truck and barge. Seneca Petroleum Company has docking facilities with a draft of five meters and pipeline for barges. The Sunoco MidAmerica M&R facility is served by truck and barge and has a draft of 4.9 meters.

Ironhead Marine, Inc. operates the Port of Toledo Shipyard, offering full-service marine repairs that include construction, conversion, and re-powering. The shipyard facility contains two graving docks of 234.1 maximum length for survey barge shipments of heavy fabrications. A new 1.9 thousand square meter High Bay Fabrication Shop is now open.

The modern City of Toledo is not a popular tourist destination, but it offers a wide range of attractions and activities that visitors will enjoy. Near downtown are the Old West End and the Toledo Museum of Art. Further out is the world-class Toledo Zoo. The Port of Toledo has a healthy Polish neighborhood dotted with fantastic restaurants. In fact, visitors can find almost any ethnic cuisine in the Port of Toledo from Polish and Hungarian treats to Middle East and Indian cuisine.

The popular Toledo Museum of Art is one of the country's best. Containing over 30 thousand works of art, the museum offers over 35 galleries, a sculpture garden, and a new glass pavilion. The museum displays works by the world's greatest artists and sculptors from Cezanne and Degas to Calder and Picasso as well as many ancient masterpieces and Asian treasures.

The Port of Toledo's historic Old West End is a wonderful step back into time with 25 blocks containing one of the biggest groups of late Victorian homes still standing in the United States. The area contains unspoiled examples Colonial, Italian Renaissance, Second Empire French, Queen Ann, and Georgian architecture. Just north of the Art Museum, the old mansions surrounded by 100-year-old trees are open at Christmas for wonderful holiday tours.

The Port of Toledo Zoo holds a treasure trove of over six thousand creatures representing more than 750 species displayed in creative animal-friendly exhibits where visitors can get close without disturbing the living displays. The zoo is active in many conservation efforts to preserve endangered and threatened species of all types, including some breeding programs.