The first harbor for settlement was the so-called Riga lake - the extension of the river Daugava.

At the end of the 15th - the beginning of the 16th century the main port of the city moves to the Daugava.

In the next century and a half the city passes successively into the hands of the Rzeczpospolita (1582),[5] Sweden (1629)[6] and Russian Empire (1721).

In each of the world wars, the city fell into the German occupation - before that the port equipment was evacuated, and some buildings were destroyed.

During the years of Soviet power the port expanded: the container terminal, built in the early 1980s on the island of Kundziņsala, at the time of commissioning was one of the largest in the USSR.