A short history of Houston; The Port and The Ship Channel
 
The settlement of Houston started in 1836 when General Sam Houston's army defeated Mexican troops in the Battle of San Jacinto.  The Allen Brothers purchased 6,000 acres along Buffalo and White Oak Bayou.  They laid out a grid of the city which aligned toward the bayous.  They had plans to make Houston the metropolis of the South.  In 1837, the Laura was the first steamship to navigate up Buffalo Bayou, in water no deeper than 6 feet, to Allen's Landing.
 
In 1846, Texas becomes the 28th State, but it wasn't until 1850 that Texas Legislature appropriate $4,000 to improve Buffalo Bayou.  At that time the census reported Houston population at 2,397.  During the civil war Texas succeeded from Union.  In response the government placed a blockade in Galveston in 1861, resulting in a big hit to the Buffalo Bayou's commercial activities. 
 
During the 1870's things finally took a turn for the better.  The Buffalo Bayou Ship Channel Company maintained the water's depth at nine feet.  In 1970, Texas was readmitted to the Union with a population of 9,332 and Congress designated Houston a port.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducted the first survey of the Houston ship channel.

 

Two years later Congress appropriated $10,000 for ship channel improvements.  In 1875, the first grain elevator was built on the ship Channel.  In 1882, the Houston Electric Light Co. was formed, Houston and New York were the first cities to build electric power plants.
 
In 1899, the Buffalo bayou project was teamed with the Galveston Bay project forming the "Galveston Ship Channel and Buffalo Bayou, Texas Project".  In 1901 oil was discovered at Spindeltop starting the new center of oil development.  In 1902 Congress appropriated $1 million for work on the channel.  The funding finally came through in 1911 that would widen the channel to 25 feet.  In 1914 the Houston Ship Channel was completed ahead of schedule.
 
The S.S. Satilla was the first deep water vessel to dock at Houston in 1915.  In 1926, natural gas was first piped into Houston expanding industry.  In 1934 Intracoastal Canal links the Houston Ship Channel to the Mississippi River system.  During the 1940's petrochemical complex develops.  By 1948 the Port of Houston ranks second in the U.S. in total tonnage which remains true today.
 
With the booming industry the Houston metro population reaches 1 million by 1955.  During the 1970's the oil industry booms in Houston.  Shell Oil Co. moves its headquarters to Houston and the Arab oil embargo quadruples oil prices.
 
Today the Houston Ship Channel spans 52 miles, consisting of the Port Authority and 150-plus private industrial companies.  The port continues to expand. 

 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Port of Houston Authority in 2005 completed widening the channel to 530 feet with a depth of 45 feet.  The channel now includes a barge lane on each side of the channel from the mouth of Galveston Bay to Morgan's Point.

 

Annually it supports 7,700 vessels and 150,000 barges equaling $7.7 billion in revenues.  The Port of Houston is the largest in foreign tonnage in the U.S, second largest in total tonnage and 10th largest port in the world.