bombed. i'm not going to say the oral history is the best way to think about the past. of course there are various ways in which we can think about the past, but oral history has a power of bringing individual voices but also it will be always based on interactions between interviewers and interview's. it's really not only about survivors themselves but also about people who have interests in finding out about their own history. it goes both ways. it's a mutual process that really is revealing in the way that it is very unique to this particular kind of historical work. >> thank you very much. >> thank you very much.

pleasure to talk to you. -

to allow small boats to go in and out of the lake into the ocean and that was the prelude to the major project which started in 1927 to proceed with a port here of what is now port everglades. a detonation eventually occurred to open the curt and turn the channel into -- cut to turn the channel into a navigationable channel. since then we've grown to the second largest cruise port in the world. on a typical year we see up to 800 port calls by cruise ships.

this year we had 40 different ships from ten different cruise lines that moved 4 million passengers to the port. the economic impact is over $2 billion and it's also over 6,000 jobs directly tied to the persons who would come in and out of broward county and greater fort lauderdale to go on those cruises. people are staying in hotels and they're also staying in hotels after their cruise is over. that once again brings jobs and brings people into the local community. the state of florida actually has the most memorable sea ports in the world. there's 15 public sea ports. two currently are not active. and also the largest coast line in the united states. as the busiest container port in

the state of florida, we have economic activity throughout the state resulting from the activity here at the port. we also have over 6,000 jobs directly tied to that container activity as well as over 200,000 jobs throughout the state. the containers that are leaving here generally are food stuffs computers, computer printers. we serve as the grocery store for the caribbean. the containers coming in, produce, bananas being the top commodity, melons. we enjoy our fruits and

vegetables. jet fuel comes from as far away as korea india, taiwan and japan. about 75% of the products consumed here in south florida come from the gulf coast u.s. refineries. to put it in a number that people might be able understand 4.7 billion 4.7 billion 4.7 billion gallons of petroleum come into the port every year. the biggest challenge we have is balancing commerce and security. as you can imagine, being the

sole provider of petroleum for south florida, having so many cruise and cargo ships in port we could be seen as a tempting target to those who want to do us harm but we spend time and money on security to ensure people feel safe and secure. for imported cargo we work closely with u.s. customs and border protection as well as the united states coast guard to ensure our tenants are complying with all the laws and regulations that apply. all cargo in port goes through radiation monitors operated by customs and border protection to ensure there's no radiation-based material coming in. other cargo is randomly inspected by customs to verify either the -- what's been declared on the manifest is accurate or to verify that

there's nothing illegal being brought into the united states. we have invested a lot of money in improvements of the port to reduce our environmental footprint as we work on construction projects. our biggest project coming up is the deepening of our channels to accommodate the largest ships out there today. about $60 million has been identified just for mitigation of the impact of that activity. on the ship side we'll be able to accommodate fully loaded

ships. depths will be 50 feet. current depth is 42 feet. so we have ships arriving from europe today that could use that 50 feet of water today but because we don't have it they arrive lightly loaded which is a less efficient way of moving goods across the ocean. the commodities that pass through port evergrades are distributed throughout the united states. we have a rail facility on the port and within four days materials that come through port everglades can be at the door step of 70% of the united states population. it continues to be a growing port. we have challenges as we grow within the surrounding community. and what we are trying to do is to strike that balance, to meet the needs of the region and the growth of the region. but do it in a way that makes sense economically and most importantly takes into account

the sensitivities of our environment that we live in.