A 42-Foot Machine Will Tower Over Tacoma’s Next Family Event

Most people experience the Port of Tacoma from a distance—watching cranes, ships and cargo equipment from across the water or through a car window. On Saturday, October 3, the Port will bring some of its biggest machines within touching distance during its annual free Touch-A-Truck event.

The centerpiece will be a 42-foot-tall straddle carrier, one of the towering machines used to lift and transport shipping containers around a terminal. Visitors will be able to stand beneath it for photographs and get a much better sense of just how enormous the equipment really is.

The display will also include a train engine and vehicles used by the Port’s maintenance and security teams. Families can walk through the Port’s Centennial shipping container, which contains historical displays about Tacoma’s working waterfront, and meet some of the people responsible for keeping cargo—and the Port itself—moving.

The event has become one of the Port’s biggest opportunities to invite the public onto its property. More than 3,000 people attended Touch-A-Truck in 2025, making it the Port’s largest community event of the year.

That popularity is understandable. The Tideflats are central to Tacoma’s economy and identity, but much of the working waterfront remains unfamiliar to people who do not work there. Touch-A-Truck turns an industrial landscape into something families can explore up close while introducing children to the equipment and careers behind one of the region’s largest employment centers.

Touch-A-Truck runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, October 3, outside the Port of Tacoma Administration Building at 1 Sitcum Way. Admission and snacks are free, but families are asked to register in advance. Printed tickets are not required. Strollers and wheelchairs are welcome; only service animals are permitted.

Register free here.