After making its debut at the Port of Los Angeles late last month, North America’s biggest ship ever will sail into the Long Beach port next month, officials announced Thursday.
The CMA CGM Benjamin Franklin, the first ship capable of carrying 18,000 shipping containers (laid in a single-file line, the containers would stretch from Santa Monica to Santa Barbara), will be inaugurated on Feb. 19 in Long Beach – complete with the breaking of a bottle of champagne.
The ship is longer than the Empire State Building is tall (1,300 feet), wider than a football field (at 177 feet) and as tall as a 20-story building (197 feet). The vessel’s tallest antenna stretches 230 feet.