River commerce was central to the livelihood of nineteenth-century towns along the Ohio and remains important in the twenty-first century. The Port of Indiana Mount Vernon is the eighth largest inland port in the country based on trip-to-miles and moves more cargo by water and rail than any other port in Indiana. This Ohio River port handles three to five million tons of grain, coal, fertilizer, steel, minerals, cement, and heavy lift project cargo each year. Located near the median center of the U.S. population, it lies only 152 miles from the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. With more than 900 acres of land and many tenant companies, it offers advanced material handling, abundant specialized storage, and room to grow with several industrial sites available. The port provides 12-month barge access to the Gulf of Mexico and fleeting capacity for 450 barges, as well as tug, towing, switching, and dry-dock services. It has six miles of rail track, dedicated locomotives for intraport switching, storage for 200 railcars, and service by the Evansville Western Railway with potential interchange to five Class I railroads. Mount Vernon is part of the Ports of Indiana three-port system operating on Lake Michigan and the Ohio River, and Indiana ranks 14th in the nation for waterborne shipping. More than 50 percent of the Indiana border is water-based, including Lake Michigan and the Ohio and Wabash rivers.