The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

EXTENSIVE INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ON THE BANKS OF HOUSTON’S SHIP CHANNEL working their way up the meandering tidewater stream of Buffalo bayou as early as 1825; this was later followed in the sixties and seventies by steam boat traffic; a line having been estab- lished at one time by Commodore Charles Morgan between Houston and New York using shallow draft side wheel steamers. However, this type of vessel was soon obsolete and as the condition of the stream would not permit the entry of deep draft ships, the traffic was limited to tugs and barges. Houston being a great con- centration point for cotton kept a large fleet of barges busy conveying the cotton from the compresses and warehouses to shipside in Bolivar roads at Galveston. By the river and harbor act passed by congress March 38, 1899, a project HOUSTON. LEFT—MORGAN LINE TERMINALS AND AT EXTREME LEFT DISTRIBUTING WAREHOUSE OF THE CA RIGHT—LONG REACH WHARF AND WAREHOUSES OF THE HOUSTON COMPRESS CO. ON THE HOUSTON 52 for the construction of the Houston ship channel to the depth of 25 feet was adopted and construction com- menced a few years later. However, progress was rather slow and it was not until 1910 when the local interests proposed to share with the govern- ment half of the cost of the construc- tion and completion of the 25-foot channel that serious and determined efforts were made to complete it promptly. Congress then appropri- ated $1,250,000 and the navigation dis- trict comprising Harris county issued bonds to the same amount and con- tracts were let for the entire project. This 25-foot channel was completed to full depth and width on Sept. 7, 1914. On account of growing traffic in 1919 this channel proved inadequate and congress approved the project on MARINE REVIEW—July, 1929 March 2 of that year for deepening the entire channel to 30 feet and widening it to 250 feet across the bay and 150 feet from Morgans point to the turning basin. Local interests were asked to contribute the sum of $1,365,000 toward the cost of the work, which was estimated at about $4,000,000. The 30-foot chan- nel was completed in September, 1925. Still Deeper and Wider Channel The river and harbor act of March 4, 1927, provided for “Preliminary ex- amination of the Houston ship chan- nel with a view of securing increased depth and width.” In accordance with the above authorization the examina- tion and survey has been made, public hearings held and a report made by the United States district engineer to the chief of engineers, who will sub- mit same, with his recommendation, to the secretary of war and thence to congress. As a result of this sur- vey it is expected that congress will authorize a still further substantial improvement of the waterway. By an act of the state legislature approved by the governor on March 26, 1927, the state of Texas ceded to the Harris county Houston ship channel navigation district all the state-owned islands and submerged lands under the shallow lakes and bays lying between Morgans point and San Jacinto battle ground, together with all rights of the state in the main channel and tributary streams, all for the purpose of development of commerce, the state reserving all mineral and oil rights. This act makes available a _ total area of about 11,000 acres of land and water suitable for development into a vast public terminal, which — RNEGIE STEEL CO. SHIP CHANNEL RS EN