Early history

1. Year 69 - 79 – During the time of the Roman emperor Vespasian starts the building of a port. It is a part of the defense castle of the Roman Empire, placed along the river. The busy port activity gives the name of the castle – Seksaginta prista (literary -60 ships).
2. 1603 – Ruse becomes a base of 50 frigates, under the command of Sheh Shami pasha.
3. The beginning of ХІХ century – Rich Austrian merchants settle in Ruse and thus contribute for the rise of the trade relations and the traffic between Austria and Turkey. The port processes English, French and Belgian cargoes as well, which compete with the Austrian goods.
4. 1830 – In Vienna was established the “First imperial-royal privileged shipping company”, which opens an agency in Ruse.
5. 1865  – The governor of the Danube region Mehmed Shafik, known as Midhad pasha, established the first Bulgarian Danube River company «Idarie and Nahrie». It had 8 steamships and 15 barges. The Austrian shipping company so far had been almost the sole transporter of goods and passengers along the whole Danube and met the news for the company with hostility.
6. 1864-1866 (7th November) – the rail-road line Ruse-Varna was built and opened for exploitation.
7. 1865-1866 (7th November) – Italian workmen build a tiled supporting wall, in front of which the pontoons were anchored.
8. 1906 – A contract is concluded for the total sum of 1 051 021 leva. Its purpose is the development of port of Ruse and includes building of quays, sloping transshipment platform, a quay wall with a railway line and a road next to it connecting the port with the main railway line Ruse - Varna.
9. Until 1918 the Port management and the Customs are one enterprise and the Manager of the Customs office is responsible for the transshipment activity in the port.
10. In 1944 the port of Ruse disposes of only 3 cranes. A steam crane is used as well, which moves along rails. The machinery was poor. During that period the import and export along the Danube are extremely restricted due to the mining of the river.
11. In 1945 the rent that the stevedore teams used to pay to the Port management for using the cranes was removed.
12. In 1950 for the first time the port starts to use machinery to reload the cargo in the rear areas. The number of people in the stevedore teams is reorganized from 30 to 10-12 people.
13. In 1955 the port acquires electric trucks which are the beginning of the mechanical processing of the passenger ships.
14. 1965 – 68 – the port disposes of 12 cranes already.
15. 1965 – the Port manages the ports of Silistra, Toutrakan, Ruse, Svishtov and Somovit.
16. On April 15th 1968 in port of Ruse-east was turned the first sod.
17. The official opening of port Ruse-east is in March 1976.

Information is used from “Mirror to Europe” - L.Tsanev, D.Vjatovski, Varna 1988.