Louisiana-Texas (LA-TEX) Intercoastal Waterway, Port Isabel

Source document Quoted word for word from HAER TX,31-POISA.V,1-. Not written, edited or summarised by this site.

Extending along the Gulf Coast from Port Isabel, Cameron County, Texas to New Orleans, Plaquemine Parish, Louisiana. At New Orleans the waterway terminates west of the Mississippi River and then is connected to the river by two extension channels, the Harvey Cut-Off and the Alternate Channel. At Port Isabel, Texas, the waterway terminates in the lower Laguna Madre with additional channels, the Cut-Off Channel and the Brownsville Ship Channel, extending navigation to the Port of Brownsville (Figure 1). Historic and Current Use Data: The Louisiana-Texas (La-Tex) Intracoastal Waterway was designed and constructed for use as an inland waterway for all types of navigation. The waterway was constructed in multiple segments, beginning east of Galveston Bay and concluding in the Laguna Madre.

Since completion of the first major segment between Galveston Bay and the Brazos River, portions of the waterway have been used continually for navigation of civilian, commercial and military vessels requiring a passageway sheltered from the navigational hazards of the open gulf. Since completion of the entire waterway in the navigable channel has been progressively widened and deepened along its entire length to facilitate passage of larger, modern vessels. Toe La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway currently is part of the greater Gulf Intracoastal Waterway that extends from Florida to Texas. Significance Statement: Originally envisioned by the United States Congress and the U. S.

Army Corps of Engineers in the early nineteenth century as a component of a nationwide system of navigable inland waterways, the La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway ultimately required more than seven decades of planning and development efforts to achieve completion. Beginning with congressional authorization in and finally constructed in the La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway has since provided reliable and safe navigation for all types of commercial, civilian and miiitary vessels from the Mississippi River near New Orleans to Port Isabel, Texas near the Rio Grande. Today .'51O' ~~ :;I I '~ ~, I ~-- '< MISS. 31 ~ ~ s- Ca,~ ~ o Baton Rouge o,...Ql ~ T A s \I ~ ~l 0 Aust L OIU IS I AN A 9 ~i: Vl z~ > s ?

Vl > OIF M El X I C 0 ~ \)I\, r ~~ ~() Zo 0> 0 27 ~ Vl .., c:o .~ c:o0 ~~ ~ 0 ~~ E Espey, Huston & Associates, Inc. ~> LA-TEX INTRACOASTAL r.._~~Ul Enuincerinu & Environmoutul Couaullanla ~ trl Figure 1 z~ Isabel li-trt WATERWAY LOCALITY MAP lOlJISI/\NA TEXAS (LA-TEX) . ~ > !3 ~Brownsville r ,~ Adapted from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers <O Ol 0 <D Cu 0 IN 11 l/\CO/\S WArEfiW/\Y LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No. 3) the former La- Tex Intracoastal Waterway, now a part of the greater Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, continues to be a vital component of the Gulf Coast regional economy and is being recognized as one of the Corps of Engineers' and the nation's remarkable engineering feats of the twentieth century.

Historical Information

The development of the La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway between New Orleans, Louisiana and Brownsville, Texas came about as an integral aspect of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers' (COE) long-standing mission to develop a nationwide system of navigable inland waterways. Those goals extend back in time to the COE's very beginnings in the realm of civil works. In the foundation for a national inland navigation channel had been laid when the COE was directed to determine a likely trans-Florida route between the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.

After examining the difficulties of such a project, the COE viewed an alternative route between Florida and Louisiana as more feasible 1 Although the COE planned a route in that largely predicted the eventual route of the modern Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, plans were first envisioned for the La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway Project with Congress' authorization of for a canal route survey between Donaldsonville, Louisiana (on the Mississippi River) and the Rio Grande River in Texas. Acting under orders from Captain (later Major) Charles W. Howell, Chief Engineer for the New Orleans District, Assistant Engineer James S.

Polhemus made the first survey of the route - a distance of fifty miles between East Galveston Bay and Sabine Lake in extreme eastern Texas - between January and April Howell's directive to Polhemus and the two other lead engineers for the Mississippi River to the Rio Grande survey was "to utilize the navigable bayous, lakes, bays, and sounds or lagoons, near the coast, and make the cuts connecting them along the shortest lines available" (Alperin The engineers in charge of the two segments of the survey east of the Sabine River were J .A. Hayward, whose area was from the Mississippi westward, and Ripley, whose survey area extended from the Sabine River eastward.

Polhemus and his crew surveyed the remainder of the Texas coastline from Galveston Bay to the Rio Grande miles) between November and August while Hayward and Ripley surveyed the eastern portions of the route. The survey teams pushed through extensive swamp lands and wide and shallow bays. Several_ stretches encountered along the Texas segment had been altered earlier for commercial traffic. Most of the information provided in this historic context has been derived and adapted from M. Alperin's detailed historical studies of the Galveston District COE and its continuing responsibility for navigable waterways in the state.

For a much greater level of detail about this and other accomplishments of the Galveston District COE, the reader is referred to Custodians of the Coast: History of the United States Army Engineers at Galveston (Alperin and History of the Gulf lntracoastal Waterway (Alperin LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No. 4) Howell's report of the survey, dated included the first plan for an inland navigation waterway beginning near the Mississippi and terminating at the Rio Grande. The total route stretched over 725 miles (Alperin Over the next 30 years, the only improvements actually made to inland navigation were conducted along an isolated stretch of coastline several hundred miles west of the Mississippi.

The first segment of the canal improved by the federal government was located in West Galveston Bay, Texas where an existing channel, dredged by the State of Texas across obstructing reefs in was deteriorating drastically due to damage caused by several intense tropical storms. In Congress authorized a dredging project to enlarge and straighten the existing channel which would terminate at Christmas Point in Oyster Bay.

In January, dredging operations completed the improvements to a depth of 3-3 1/2 feet and width of feet (Alperin The COE's subsequent purchase of the Galveston and Brazos Navigation Company's nearby canal in facilitated development of a continuous federally-sponsored channel between West Galveston Bay and the Brazos River (Alperin While various small canal projects were completed in Texas during the late nineteenth century, the Howell's survey report was shelved for thirty years until when Major (later Lieutenant General) Edgar Jadwin reviewed Howell's prior report and recommendations.

Amid growing public interest and economic support for a nationwide system of inland waterways, Jadwin adopted much of Howell's earlier plan and went on to propose two additional surveys west and south of Galveston Bay - one from Aransas Pass through Turtle Cove to Corpus Christi, and a second, from Aransas Pass to and up the Guadalupe River. Jadwin's assessments of potential commerce reflected the COE's concerns regarding regional industrial growth, particularly with regard to the evolving petroleum industry in Texas and Louisiana. Jadwin's recommendations resulted, by in construction of channels measuring feet extending from Corpus Christi to Aransas Pass, from Aransas Pass to Pass Cavallo, and from the Brazos River to Galveston Bay.

In the COE re-examined Jadwin's report and in their conclusion, Lieutenant Colonel (later Major General) Lansing H. Beach, Gulf Division Engineer, made recommendations favoring development of the unimproved segment between the Brazos River and Matagorda Bay~ Two years later Congress authorized the improvement of this segment, consequently paving the way for an uninterrupted channel from Galveston to Corpus Christi.

Additional legislation authorized a tributary channel to reach up the Guadalupe River into Victoria (Alperin Jadwin had further advised in that the southwestern segment from Corpus Christi to Port Isabel be reconsidered at a future date (Alperin Although the Rivers and Harbors Act of provided for further surveys of a continuous navigation canal from Boston to the Rio Grande, as of the Federal Government had no comprehensive plan to complete the proposed waterway. Federal inaction prompted the Intrastate Inland Waterway League, composed of Texas industrialists, to prepare for a strike. The League feared that inaction was stifling the potential for further economic development in the state (Alperin LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No.

5) The Intrastate Inland Waterway League had been organized in by Clarence S.E. Holland, a banker and president of the Business Men's Association of Victoria, Texas. A south Texas newspaperman, Roy Miller, spearheaded the league's new program which promoted the intracoastal canal's success through government lobbying and obtaining the necessary rights-of- way. Its goals were aimed at constructing a consolidated system of navigable inland waters extending from the Great Lakes, through the Mississippi Valley, and along the Louisiana and Texas coastlines.

Eventually, the league grew into the Intracoastal Waterway League of Louisiana and Texas, renamed the Intracoastal Canal Association of Louisiana and Texas, and finally developed into the Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (Alperin Through the efforts of Miller, the league obtained a modest amount of success in selling the intracoastal waterway to local interests and Congress by focusing on the growth of industrial development along the Gulf coastline. In members of the league (now renamed the Intracoastal Canal Association of Louisiana and Texas) retained Major General George W. Goethals to study the commercial potential of a continuous canal through Louisiana and Texas.

Goethals report, submitted on 27 November estimated that a combined Texas-Louisiana intracoastal canal would carry between five and seven million tons annually (Alperin He also estimated that these figures would increase to more than 12 million tons with the maintenance and completion of the eastern and Atlantic segments (Alperin On 3 March the Rivers and Harbors Act authorized the re-examination and survey of the intracoastal waterway from the Mississippi River, at or near New Orleans, Louisiana, to Corpus Christi, Texas. In June, Gulf Division Engineer George M. Hoffman departed from the conventional wisdom to dredge through existing open bays, and recommended dredging a landlocked channel, running along and inside the existing shoreline.

Hoffman defended his proposal stating that although a landlocked route would require more extensive excavation, it would ultimately be less costly to maintain than routes exposed to extreme weather and high energy shoreline processes (i.e., currents, tidal deposition, etc.). His recommendations eventually led to the completion of a 9-foot channel which terminated at Corpus Christi in (Alperin The Rivers and Harbors_ Act authorized preliminary examination and survey for an intracoastal canal running east of New Orleans to the Apalachicola River in Florida, and from New Orleans to Corpus Christi. The COE determined that the initial intracoastal canal project, connecting the waterway from New Orleans to Corpus Christi, would cost an estimated $16 million.

The Sabine River to Galveston Bay segment of the La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway (figures 2 through 7), itself a component of the New Orleans to Corpus Christi portion of the La- Tex Intracoastal Waterway, was authorized to be 9 feet deep and 100 feet wide - thus keeping with the dimensions used by the COE for other major navigational channels along the Mississippi LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No. 6) (:) (.) -- ' "" i t. L ,_ ,- --- .Pl LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No. 7) . " ~ ! 1-.,--i,f'-:::,,,j,;,.._ ! ~ r 0 .! J 0 !. "" .,, ~ ... 1 J \ <: c;) i,.. V) ... ),. <( > CQ ... - <( " .:- . r- LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER-NO. (Page No. 8) .. 0 0 .. . > -+. ? .. ,:, ( z' I '~ ~ ~ ~ : .

~ LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No. 9) .. -~ " -l .. 0 ..I f I I" -----------4---=i.--d ~ o , /\ ,'ll<J':\..__,.I - I . . , . ., . LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No. 10) ,. . . - --( . - . -' --- -.. --- 0 -~ ------"ia------ - - - - - - - - - - - - - , . , . , - 0 ? j I ., I ~ 1. .. .' ~ . " ~ : a5j "' LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No. 11) ~? .,. , l . ! . ---of.:-, 0 > " . ,,, \. 1 >> 1 ! LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No. 12) and Ohio rivers (Alperin In planning the Sabine to Galveston Bay segment of the waterway, one obstacle arose which delayed construction for a period of approximately two years.

Utilizing what was believed to be the navigable channel of Mud Bayou near High Island, Texas, the proposed waterway was to cross the Gulf Interstate Railway Company's route from Beaumont to Galveston. The Gulf Interstate Railway Company's line was at that time leased and operated by the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway. Upon the COE's request that the railroad company improve their existing bridge at Mud Bayou in accordance with government regulations, a legal controversy arose concerning the railroad company's responsibility to provide the requested improvement. As a result of. two court decisions, the COE was ultimately required to sustain the cost of bridge construction (U.S. Army COE By planning for the Mud Bayou Railway Bridge project was well under way.

One year later all but one mile of the waterway between Sabine River and Galveston Bay had been dredged, and all plans and specifications had been approved for construction of the bridge, a bridge tender's residence and all necessary ancillary structures. The approved bridge design was a flat Warren through-truss with diagonal end-posts, to be constructed of steel and placed on a pivoting turnstile to allow the bridge to swing horizontally. The design of the railway bridge was probably submitted by the contracting firm and selected as the most favorable for its cost and purpose by the COE.

All components of the project were built using National Industrial Recovery Act funds allocated to the COE by the Public Works Administration (PWA) under PWA Federal Project Number The Chief of Engineer's Annual Repon of anticipated costs of for the bridge with appurtenances, and for the High Island Bridge Tender's Station, Residence. Regular funds anticipated for operation and maintenance costs for the fiscal year were estimated to be By 18 August the entire project had been completed at a cost of (Galveston District, Corps of Engineers including both the bridge and the High Island Bridge Tender's Station, Residence, and the Sabine to Galveston Bay portion of the La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway opened to vessel traffic for the first time.

Although there are no known detailed records of the bridge tender's activities in the early years, in the first full year of operation almost vessels with a partial estimate of tonnage over passed eastbound and westbound along the waterway (War Department That same year the railroad bridge at Mud Bayou was operated and maintained by hired labor at a cost of (War Department In fiscal year the Mud Bayou Railway Bridge was operated and maintained by hired labor for a cost of and vessels traveled eastbound and westbound with estimated tonnage over one million (War Department Vol. 1, p. 781 and Vol. 2, p. For further information about the Mud Bayou Railway Bridge and the associated High Island Bridge Tender's Station, see Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) No.

LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No. 13) In addition to extending navigation along the Texas-Louisiana coastline, the project provided for the construction of floodgates and canal locks. Eventually, protective structures were constructed at these crossings to prevent large sediment deposits which washed down river during periods of high discharge, and extreme current velocities caused by upstream flooding. Massive floodgates for the Brazos and Colorado rivers were completed in and respectively.

To further cope with changes in elevation along the waterway, a canal lock system was added to the Colorado River floodgate area by as well as other locations in Louisiana at Algiers, Harvey, and Port Allen (Alperin Authorization in further extended continuous inland navigation along the Texas coast, from the Sabine River to Corpus Christi. During U.S. involvement in World War II, the strategic importance of a secured passage for military troops, munitions and other supplies renewed the Federal Government's interest in inland waterway transportation. The dimensions of the main channel were enlarged to 12 feet by 125 feet and maintenance dredging continued as always to control sedimentation within the waterway, especially where the waterway crossed large natural bays and rivers.

Modernizing the channel was also necessitated by the overall tremendous traffic growth of the inland waterway system accompanied by the emergence of larger hopper barge types, which averaged 175 feet in length, 27 feet wide, 10 feet in depth, and a 900-ton cargo capacity. Changes in barge and tow construction and design were driven by the necessity for versatility and the need to accommodate specialized cargoes such as petrochemical products (Miloy and Phillips By after the enlargement of the existing waterway had been accomplished to Corpus Christi, dredging operations began to extend the waterway to Port Isabel, and estimated annual traffic along the waterway had risen to 23 million tons (U.S.

Army Engineer Districts In addition to the COE's operation of the railway bridge at Mud Bayou near High Island, Texas, other improvements constructed along the La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway by the COE by that time included a sheet pile and sand dike at Galveston Bay near Port Bolivar, two sheet pile dikes at Matagorda Bay near Port O'Connor, and the floodgate structures at both the Brazos and Colorado river crossings. By the final segment of the intracoastal waterway was cut through the Laguna Madre, thereby marking the completion of the west Texas coastal extremity and the La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway as a whole.

Subsequent improvements conducted during the early included various modifications and additional branch channels, including channels to Harlingen, Port Mansfield, Aransas Pass, Rock Port, and Palacios (Alperin Estimated annual traffic along the waterway for exceeded 48 million tons, of which approximately 72 percent was within the eastern section of the waterway between the Sabine River and Galveston Bay (U.S. Army Engineer Districts 39 and Although the intracoastal waterway accounted for a major portion of the U.S. water transportation network and was an obvious economic advantage, prior to the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in Texas had no single non-federal sponsor.

Local management efforts were coordinated between the COE and various navigation districts, river and port authorities until the Texas State Legislature passed the Texas Coastal Waterway Act. This act authorized the State of Texas to LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No.

14) act as a local non-federal sponsor of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and designated the State Highway and Public Transportation Commission to act as agency for the state in fulfilling non- federal responsibilities which included various construction and maintenance activities (State Highway Department In addition to this Historic American Engineering Record documentation, the COE has recently completed Historic American Buildings Survey documentation of the Fort Point District Boat Yard, Pattern Warehouse3, which was built to house wooden patterns used in casting dredge equipment used in developing the waterway, as well as the High Island Bridge Tender's Station and Mud Bayou Railway Bridge identified above.

For these and other components of the La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway District, this historical overview is intended to serve as a contextual background for understanding and evaluating their individual historical significance. This HAER project was sponsored by the COE's Galveston District headquarters in Galveston, Texas and has been prepared by Eugene Foster and James S. Schmidt of Espey, Huston & Associates, Inc. of Austin, Texas. 3 For further information about this site, see HABS No. LOUISIANA-TEXAS (LA-TEX) INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY HAER NO. (Page No. 15)

Bibliography

Alperin, Custodians of the Coast: History of the United States Army Engineers at Galveston. Galveston District, United States Army Engineers. Galveston, Texas. History of the Gulf lntracoastal Waterway. National Waterways Study. U.S. Army Engineer Water-Resources Support Center, Institute for Water Resources. Washington, Galveston District, Corps of Engineers Mud Bayou Railroad Bridge. Operation and Maintenance Manual. U.S Army Engineers District, Galveston. Galveston, Texas. Miloy, John and Christian Phillips Primary Economic Impact ofthe Gulflntracoastal Waterway in Texas. Industrial Economics Research Division, Texas Engineering Experiment Station, Texas A&M University, Texas.

State Department of Highways and Public Transportation, Transportation Planning Division (State Highway Department) The Gulf lntracoastal Waterway in Texas. Presented in Response to the Texas Coastal Waterway Act of and Submitted to the Seventy-First Session of the Texas Legislature, Austin, Texas. U.S. Army Engineer Districts Review ofVenical Clearances for Bridges on the Gulflntracoastal Waterway and Principal Tributaries. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Document on file at the Galveston District Corps of Engineers headquarters library, Galveston, Texas. War Department Repon of the Chief of Engineers. United States Government Printing Office. Washington, Repon of the Chief of Engineers. United States Government Printing Office. Washington, Repon of the Chief of Engineers.

United States Government Printing Office. Washington,