Machines that literally make our lives possible yet stand unknown to most of the country. Rising 28 stories above the docks, these agile giants can load 40 containers in an hour in the hands of a capable operator. They are responsible for most of the goods that arrive from Asia, totaling more than half a billion dollars of import per day to the United States. If commerce is the system that interconnects the world’s cultures, these are the indispensable gears of that system.