Halifax Harbour is seeing more ships and in return, more crowds this Canada Day weekend.
Two vessels arrived in Halifax Thursday, including the largest container ship in the harbour’s history, Zim Antwerp.
It was an exciting day for the Halifax Port Authority as the ships arrival marked an important milestone for them.
"It shows that Halifax is one of those ports that can berth and service vessels of this size, and there are only a handful of ports with that capability along the east coast of North America. It's very good for us to be part of that club," says Lane Farguson with the Halifax Port Authority.
The ship is 349 metres long and has the capacity to hold over 10,000 shipping containers.To put that in perspective, if the ship was stood up vertically, it would reach two-thirds of the height of Canada’s tallest building – the CN tower.
The Zim Antwerp is not the only big in the harbor. The cruise ship Anthem of the Seas also arrived Thursday morning. It’s 348 metres long and it is largest cruise ship to ever visit Halifax. The ship holds over 4,900 passengers and crew.
USS Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived in Halifax on Wednesday drawings hundreds to the waterfront. The ship is so large it has its own zip code.
"I came to see the aircraft carrier. I've only ever seen them on Top Gun and stuff. I've never actually seen an aircraft carrier up front," says onlooker Kathleen Masui.
Amongst the crowd were people of all ages, some who had been on aircraft carriers before.
"I'm an ex-naval man, and I was on two aircraft carriers, not the size of that but much smaller, in World War 2," says veteran Len Whiffen.
The weekend is expected to busy with the arrival of thousands of sailors aboard the USS Eisenhower along with several other US.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Allan April
