From my childhood, I can remember John Denver’s catchy tune about an evening spent in Toledo, “Saturday night in Toledo Ohio, is like being nowhere at all…” I remember wondering if Toledoans resented the song or if they could chuckle right along with everyone else about their fine city.

Though clearly not a New York, London, Paris or Los Angeles on the hot world metropolitan scene, Toledo does have some global merit in the estimation of many who happen to reside there. For one thing, the highways and rails that run through the city give Toledo a legitimate claim to be quite a crossroads for Ohio and the country.

“Every city has a map to show people that they are the center of the world,” said Joseph W. Cappel, the director of cargo development for the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority. “I think Toledo can back that argument up.”

About 700 great lakes vessels and 80 ocean freighters visit the Port of Toledo’s 15 terminals every year bringing in steel, fertilizer and other bulk goods. On the way out, the monstrous vessels haul boatloads of corn, wheat and soybeans to feed a world clamoring for the bounty produced by Midwestern farmers.

“Grain is a big part of U.S. exports,” Cappel said. “We import a lot of things, but in Toledo, port-wide, it is a 50-50 mix of imports and exports.”

The Port of Toledo has three riverfront grain terminals served by rail, ship and truck operated by The Andersons, Inc. and ADM, Inc. that have a combined 22-million-bushel storage capacity.

“With soybeans, we probably average 20 million bushels going out for export every year and corn we probably average 25 million bushels a year, mostly grown in a 150-mile radius in Ohio, Indiana and Michigan,” said Don Wray, plant operations manager for The Andersons. “Just one vessel going out holds four 75-car train units.”

The Andersons’ two terminals are used for separate handling of corn and soybeans to improve the logistics for the company and the delivery for the farmer customers.

“We will dump 400,000 bushels of corn and 500,000 bushels of soybeans a day in the peak of the season during the fall,” Wray said. “Most of the beans go out on vessels, but the St. Lawrence Seaway basically closes in January. Then we are strictly rail to the East Coast or hauling corn to the southeast.”

When shipments go out the St. Lawrence Seaway, they often head north to Canada or continue east to Africa. The outgoing grain is also important to the shipping industry.

“It offers a boon to the economics by backhauling loads of grain out when they bring something in,” Wray said. “This opens up a way for us to be much stronger in the world market. The St. Lawrence Seaway and the Port of Toledo give us another important way to market grain.”

The Port of Toledo is going to serve a more vital role moving forward with improvements that are planned for the near future.

“The Port of Toledo has been really fortunate to get a lot of grant funding and we are adding two new cranes that will be two or three times faster than what we have,” Cappel said. “We’ll really be able to speed up loading and unloading with the improvements we have coming. The Toledo port will be the fastest at handling materials in the Great Lakes. With this new equipment we will definitely be able to play a bigger role than we have in the past.”

In addition, more rail access, dredging sediment and other quality-of-life/tourism-type improvements will add vitality and functionality to the area in coming years. The Port will also benefit from a general re-focusing of attention on the importance of water transportation.

“There is a big focus at the state and federal levels to work on improving marine shipping for the environmental benefits and to reduce the congestion with rail and trucking. More people are looking to utilize our waterways to their fullest capacity,” Cappel said. “As the world population grows, more products will need to be shipped and this is the most environmentally friendly way to do it.”

Toledo seems poised to work toward Cappel’s lofty description as the center of the world. Though for John Denver fans, I fear no amount of global shipping will make Toledo amount to more than being nowhere at all.