Plainly visible from West Seattle, thousands of shipping containers come and go daily from Terminal 18 on Harbor Island, where they are scanned with gamma rays, scoped with radiation detectors and analyzed by computer.
The security system at Terminal 18 is designed to limit access and keep track of the movements of all containers, trucks and people throughout the facility, said Andrew McLauchlan, senior vice president of SSA Marine, a Seattle-based private company that runs the terminal.
About 250 ships call at Terminal 18 each year to load and unload approximately 800,00