Over time, a number of traders, diplomats and soldiers have commented on the important role played by the port of Sulina for the smooth running of navigation at the mouth of the Danube.
Due to the difficult navigation, caused by sandbanks, currents and shallow water in the area of the Danube spillway, after 1785 the regularisation of the mouths of the Danube is increasingly discussed.
In the 1820s, the first pirates are said to have appeared to plunder unseaworthy ships at anchor or in the difficult areas at the mouth of the Danube.
In fact, the mouths of the Danube have always been a reason for the territorial disputes of the great powers since ancient times and this situation has been perpetuated, going from the violent stage of military threats to a slow evolution that over time has taken on the clothes of a fine diplomacy.
The eternal disagreement between the Turks and the Russians has had negative repercussions on shipping activity. There was Russian chicanery through the quarantine station on the left bank of the Danube, with the intention of diverting ship traffic to the port of Odessa, as well as actions to sabotage the mouths of the Danube by sinking ships.
In 1840 Sulina was nominated as a sea-river port in the Russian-Austrian Convention concluded in St. Petersburg.
Following the Crimean War, through the Paris Peace Congress in 1856, a European organisation was set up to take care of improving navigation at the mouth of the Danube and up to the port of Braila. This is the European Danube Commission, which includes Austria, Russia, Turkey, England, France, Prussia and Sardinia.
The General Secretariat of the C.E.D. was established in Sulina between 1856 and 1878.
The technical headquarters of the commission was also located in the port of Sulina, with all the technical assets consisting of the shipyard, dredging vessels, hydrotechnical vessels, salvage vessels, intervention and manoeuvring tugs, navigation house, pilotage service for barge and line, etc.
The period of operation of the European Commission of the Danube stretched over 82 years (1856 - 1939).
In 1857 the first telegraph line was set up connecting the city of Galati.
After 1878, Sulina became a port with extraterritorial status, characterized by neutrality in times of peace or war, with certain fiscal privileges.
Brought from the U.S.A., the first electric generator put into operation in Sulina provided power for the Commission Palace, its gardens and the harbour quay.
In 1903, the first telephone line was inaugurated between the port of Sulina and the port of Galati and electric lighting was extended to the main points of the town, making it the first electric lighting in Romania.
In 1897 work began on the construction of a waterworks, financed by the Queen of the Netherlands.
In 1939, with the reduction of the prerogatives of the European Commission of the Danube, Sulina lost its international status and came under the authority of Romania.
August 25, 1945 remains a day of dark memory for the town of Sulina which, bombed by the Allies, loses over 60% of its cultural heritage.