SIC 4482 Ferries

Encyclopedia of American Industries | 2005 | Copyright

SIC 4482
FERRIES

This category includes establishments primarily engaged in operating ferries for the transportation of passengers or vehicles. Establishments primarily engaged in providing lighterage services are classified in SIC 4499: Water Transportation Services, Not Elsewhere Classified.

NAICS Code(s)

483114 (Coastal and Great Lakes Passenger Transportation)

483212 (Inland Water Passenger Transportation)

Industry Snapshot

In 2000, there were 224 ferry operators in the United States. Operators provided ferry service on 487 nonstop ferry route segments, comprising 352 ferry routes and serving 578 ferry terminal locations. The 677 ferries in operation carried 113 million passengers and more than 32 million vehicles. Some 10 percent of ferries were high speed vessels, capable of going 25 knots or faster. After falling to historic lows in the 1970s, U.S. ferry services began enjoying a revival in popularity as commuters sought alternatives to overcrowded highways.

Organization and Structure

Ferries in the United States run the gamut from small floating parking lots capable of carrying a few dozen cars a short distance to huge ferryliners, such as those servicing the Alaska Marine Highway, that are capable of carrying hundreds of automobiles. Some even provide passengers with conveniences ranging from lounges and cafeterias to overnight accommodations on trips that could last up to a week. Some old-fashioned rope or steam-operated paddle-wheel ferries still run as tourist attractions and as a living monument to the long history of ferries in the United States.

Multi-route ferry systems, such as the Alaskan system or the Washington State Ferry System, are often operated by state departments of transportation. However, many commuter routes in urban areas such as New York and San Francisco are privately operated. Highway river crossings are characterized by a mix of government and privately run services. Federal law requires that all passenger ferries be inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard. There was no national organization of ferry operators, although many of them belonged to the American Waterways Operators.

Background and Development

Ferries are commonly defined as boats that carry passengers or vehicles across narrow bodies of water in return for payment. They have a long history. Even Charon, ferryman for the dead in ancient Greek mythology, demanded payment before transporting souls across the river Styx into Hades, prompting Greeks to place coins in the mouths of the dead before burying them.

The earliest accounts of European exploration in North America record instances of Native Americans charging to carry passengers across rivers in birch bark canoes. There are, in fact, written accounts of wagons being loaded into two canoes paddled side-by-side. Many early government treaties conferred the right of ferriage to the Indians, but the Indians were shunted aside as soon as a ferry route became profitable, as John Perry points out in American Ferryboats.

As late as 1828, 10 years after Illinois became a state, the Winnebago Indians controlled the important commercial ferry route across the Rock River at modern day Dixon. When the Winnebago monopoly was challenged in 1827, the Indians destroyed both the offending ferry-boat and ferry house. Eventually, ferriage rights were negotiated as part of the Treaty of Green Bay. French trapper Joe Ogee established the first non-Indian ferry in 1829. In 1832, Ogee sold the ferry to John Dixon, and the community became known as Dixon's Ferry.

Piecing together a history of the early American ferryboat industry is difficult because few official records were kept. What is known was usually gleaned from the diaries of travelers, or as was often the case, when squabbles over who had the legal right to provide ferriage ended up in court. However, by the 1640s, there were several established ferry routes in the American colonies. In 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Colony issued a request for someone to begin ferry service between Boston and Charlestown. The first regular ferry service between New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island and Brooklyn on Long Island is known to have been in operation by 1643, and probably for several years before that.

In 1654, New Amsterdam also passed what may have been the first ferry ordinance in the New World. The ordinance declared that no one could provide ferriage without a license, that ferry service must adhere to a regular schedule, and that ferry operators must provide shelters for...

Read all of SIC 4482 Ferries at HighBeam Business

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

	Dispersion management is vital for high-speed systems. Magazine article from: Laser Focus World ; ...both chromatic and polorization-mode dispersion is critical to ensure quality performance...s networks Pulse spreading caused by dispersion is the prime limit on fiber bandwidth, so dispersion compensation offers an obvious way to...
	Dispersion limits fiber-transmission bandwidth. Magazine article from: Laser Focus World ; ...must account for these variations. Dispersion within an optical fiber is the primary...reduces the signal-to-noise ratio. Dispersion occurs because the speed of light through...distance. There are four major types of dispersion: modal dispersion arising from fiber...
	Dispersions: Flush vs. Dry Pigment. Magazine article from: Ink World ; ...prominent dispersion processes...dry pigment dispersions. These processes...Dry Pigment Dispersions Able to yield...water-based dispersion of between...choosing a dispersion process is...to pigment dispersions for offset...
	Dispersions improve consistency, mixing cycles: Part 2 of 2. Magazine article from: Rubber & Plastics News ; ...form metal oxide dispersions as mixing aids...paste is the wax dispersion. A typical binder...paraffin wax dispersions is shown in Fig...this case, the dispersion also may contain...dilaurate. Powder dispersions Some of the most...
	Dispersion compensation markets: paths to opportunity.(ANALYST CORNER) Magazine article from: Lightwave ; ...significant new revenues will be generated for dispersion compensation by the next wave of optical...trends promoting demand for sophisticated dispersion compensation technology. In a recently...are four paths to opportunity in the dispersion compensation business. At the same...
	Dispersion of categorical variables and penalty functions: derivation, estimation, and comparability. Magazine article from: Journal of the American Statistical Association ; Measures of dispersion for categorical random variables based...systematic and rigorous construction of dispersion measures based on penalty functions...ensure a meaningful comparability of dispersion measures based on penalty functions...
	Aqueous dispersions for ultraviolet light curable coatings. Magazine article from: The Journal of Coatings Technology ; ...the resulting dispersions were about 65% solids. Dispersion viscosity was...here that all dispersions evaluated to date...behavior. The dispersion viscosity decreases...three types of dispersions: dispersion of acrylated urethane...
	Dispersion control boosts high-speed transmission. Magazine article from: Laser Focus World ; ...index single-mode fiber, it has zero dispersion at 1310 nm, where attenuation typically...2 to 0.3 dB/km at 1550 nm. Its dispersion at 1550 nm is high, however--about...Little can be done to change material dispersion without impairing fiber transmission...
	The Dispersion Market. Magazine article from: Ink World ; ...suspension. If the dispersion is stable...separated." "Dispersions, in their...transparency. A good dispersion must also...well." "Dispersions are stable...water-based dispersions. Providing Value A good dispersion can do more...
	Dispersion compensators move onto optical-network fast track. Magazine article from: Laser Focus World ; MAJOR DRIVERS OF THE DISPERSION COMPENSATOR MARKET INCLUDE INCREASED...wavelengths, carders also need to handle dispersion problems. And this is happening...long-haul networks, is chromatic dispersion, which is both data-rate and wavelength...