The Houston Ship Channel, with Loop 610 in the foreground (Port of Houston photo)
The Houston Ship Channel begins as Buffalo Bayou in the north east corner of Fort Bend County 30 miles west of Houston.
It flows for 50 miles to the San Jacinto River and empties into Galveston Bay. John and Augustus Allen, founders of Houston, recognized the importance of this waterway and established Houston on the bayou’s banks in 1836. The Laura was the first steamboat to arrive in Houston on January 22, 1837. Cotton planters brought cotton to Houston to ship it on riverboats or barges to Galveston, then shipped to market. On January 29, 1842, the community leaders established the Port of Houston. The Congress of the Republic of Texas allowed the city the right to clear obstructions and improve Buffalo Bayou. After Texas became a U.S. state, docking fees were waived for companies that contracted to keep the ship channel clean.
In 1869, Houston merchants organized the Buffalo Bayou Ship Channel Company whose purpose was to make channel improvements. Charles Morgan, a pioneer in Gulf Coast shipping, bought the company in 1874. He dredged a channel from Galveston Bay toward Houston. Morgan is sometimes called, “the Father of the Ship Channel.”
During his term as a Congressman, Houstonian Thomas H. Ball, Jr., was a key proponent of the ship channel. In 1897, he became a member of the Rivers and Harbors Committee. He tried to convince Congress to support a deep water port for Houston. After the Great Storm of 1900 all but destroyed Galveston, the need for such a port became more important. Adding to this need was the Spindletop oil discovery in 1901. Rice was also beginning to rival cotton as the dominant export product. The need for newer and larger ships was growing. (As an aside, the town of Tomball, in northern Harris County, was named in Ball’s honor.)
Ball made the revolutionary suggestion that Houston share the ship channel expansion costs with the federal government. This suggestion was called the Houston Plan after Congress unanimously voted in favor of it. As a result, the Harris County Houston Ship Channel Navigation District was formed to raise $1.25 million in bonds to pay for Houston’s share of the cost. Jesse H. Jones, a Democratic politician and businessman from Houston, was instrumental in persuading banks to buy the bonds.
The work on the deepwater channel bean in 1923, and was completed on September 7, 1914. The ceremony heralding the official opening of the channel was held on Tuesday, November 10, 1914. The ceremony included a 21-gun salute, with thousands of people attending. President Woodrow remotely fired a cannon from his office in Washington, D.C. to signify the official opening of the ship channel.
The ship channel connects Houston to the rest of the world. In regards to foreign tonnage, the Port of Houston is the nation’s leading port. It is second in overall tonnage. Periodically, the ship channel has been deepened and widened to handle larger and newer ships. Today it is 530 feet wide, 45 feet deep, and 50 miles long.
The Port of Houston and the ship channel are integral components of Houston’s economy. The shipping activities of the ship channel employ about 55,000 people who make $314 million in wages.
