These 500-foot-tall cranes will usher in a new era of shipping in New Jersey

The cranes pass beneath Bayonne Bridge en route to Newark Bay. Credit: S.P. Sullivan/NJ.comThe cranes pass beneath Bayonne Bridge en route to Newark Bay. Credit: S.P. Sullivan/NJ.com

On Sunday, a trio of massive shipping cranes arrived in the Port of New York and New Jersey that will allow the world’s largest ships to unload cargo there once the ongoing expansion of the Panama Canal is complete.

The cranes will be erected at the Port Newark Container Terminal on Newark Bay and will usher in what’s being called the “super post-Panamax” era in the region, according to a report from the New Jersey Star-Ledger. In total, the cranes cost the terminal $40 million.

When erected, the cranes will stand 561 feet tall—six feet taller than the Washington Monument.

The cranes are part of a $500 million expansion of the terminal and will make operations more efficient as they are able to unload higher stacks of containers than current cranes and they have longer arms to reach across the decks of big ships. They feature a capacity to unload 22 rows of containers as opposed to the current cranes’ capacity of 18.