Page 25: of Marine News Magazine (April 2011)

24 26

www.marinelink.com approached the U.S. Congress with an offer to pay half the cost if

Congress would authorize and fund dredging of the channel to 25 feet.

The offer was accepted and the

Texas Legislature authorized Harris

County to establish a navigation district and issue bonds. The deeper dredging was completed in 1914, but development of the shoreside infrastructure did not really com- mence until 1919, after the end of

World War I. Initially, the primary export cargo was cotton, but this was soon overtaken by oil. Now, oil is the primary import cargo (the world turned upside down). The authorized dimensions of the

Houston Ship Channel are now 530 feet in width and 45 feet in depth. It extends 50 miles from the Gulf of

Mexico to the Turning Basin. The upper half consists of the Port of

Houston, the busiest port in the

U.S. in terms of foreign tonnage and the second busiest in terms of overall tonnage. Both shores of the

Houston Ship Channel now include many petrochemical and other industrial facilities.

Posted by Dennis Bryant at

MaritimeProfessional.com

Photo cour tesy NASA Ear th Obser vatory

In 1876, the Buffalo Bayou Ship Channel Company dredged a channel 100 feet wide and six feet deep from Galveston Bay to the vicinity of Houston. The U.S. Army

Corps of Engineers later took over responsibility for the project, extending the chan- nel to Long Reach, now called the Turning Basin.