When containerization arrived in force through the 1960s and 1970s, Manhattan’s waterfront lost. Its piers became obsolete. The neighborhoods built around dock work hollowed out over a generation. The container didn’t reward proximity to the city or historical primacy or labor skill. We are at an equivalent moment right now, and almost nobody is looking at the land. If overland freight cost approaches zero as a result of autonomous trucking, the premium for proximity to intermodal terminals weakens and manufacturing location math changes. The same bet available to buyers of land in Elizabeth, New Jersey, in 1958 is available today. Taking it requires one to see what the old infrastructure is about to stop rewarding, and what the new constraint is about to start requiring…

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