The prosperity of port cities, throughout history, has been closely tied to the ports’ ability to adapt to economic and technological change. As ships got bigger, ports had to keep up. This has often seen the port proper grow apart from the city whose name it bears because the old harbour could no longer accommodate the needs of modernised shipping.
In those European cities located by rivers, port activities have often migrated towards the estuary. The ships headed for the port of Liverpool now berth in docks stretching north of the original Royal Albert dock, along the banks of the river Mersey in a strategic vantage point within the north-west of the UK, with direct links to major motorway networks.
