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the facility for ships thumb|right|upright=1.35|The Port of New York and New Jersey grew from the original [[New York Harbor|harbor at the convergence of the Hudson River and the East River at the Upper New York Bay.]] thumb|The Porticciolo del Cedas port in Barcola near Trieste, a small local port thumb|Port of Durban in Durban, South Africa is Africa's busiest port thumb|Seaport, a 17th-century depiction by Claude Lorrain, 1638 thumb|right|Shanghai Port is the [[List of world's busiest container ports|world's busiest container port]] thumb|right|Port of Kaohsiung is the largest port in Taiwan. thumb|right|Port of Hamburg thumb|The port of Piraeus thumb|right|Port of Seattle thumb|Port of Haifa, Israel thumb|right|Port of Barcelona, one of Spain's largest ports thumb|right|Port of Montreal, Quebec. thumb|right|The [[Twin Ports|Port of Duluth-Superior, the largest freshwater port in the world]] thumb|Cargo port in Hilo, Hawaii A port is a maritime facility which may comprise one or more wharves where ships may dock to load and discharge passengers and cargo. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, some ports, such as Hamburg, Manchester and Duluth, are many miles inland, with access to the sea via river or canal. Because of their roles as a port of entry for immigrants many port cities such as London, New York, Shanghai, Los Angeles, Singapore and Vancouver have experienced dramatic multi-ethnic and multicultural changes. Today, by far the greatest growth in port development is in Asia, the continent with some of the world's largest and busiest ports, such as Singapore and the Chinese ports of Shanghai and Ningbo-Zhoushan. As of 2020, the busiest passenger port in the world is the Port of Helsinki in Finland. However, ports can also be very small and only serve local fishing or tourism.