GALVESTON, Tex., city, port of entry and county-seat of Galveston County, located on the east end of Galveston Island which is 30 miles long and two miles from the main land. Galveston Bay lies to the north and Gulf of Mexico on the south. The city is con nected with the mainland by the Galveston Causeway, an arched reinforced concrete structure, and used by electric interurban, steam railways, auto and vehicle traffic. It is on the Southern Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe, the International and Great Northern, the Galves ton, Houston and Henderson, and the Gulf and Interstate railroads, and Galveston-Houston Electric Interurban. The city possesses a fine beach automobile speedway, 25 miles long. Semi-tropical winters and balmy summer breezes offer a delightful climate the entire year. The annual average temperature is 69°. Galveston has a magnificent gulf front, brick paved, brilliantly illuminated boulevard and walk, four and a half miles long and 17 feet above sea-level. It has two splendid bathing pavilions, pleasure and fishing piers, city-owned gulf front public park with free band concerts, boating, fishing and one of the finest and most up-to-date resort hotels in the country. Fish ing is confined to no season. Tarpon, Jack fish, trout, Spanish mackerel, red fish, pompano and red snapper are freely caught at and near Gal veston. The coast country in the vicinity of Galveston, during the fall and winter, is a hunter's paradise. The bays and creeks in this locality abound with ducks, geese and snipe. Miles of oleanders and palms line the streets. It is a city of beautiful residences and many conventions and large gatherings have been held here.
Public Buildings.— Galveston has a mag nificent fireproof city auditorium, seating 4,200. The finest public library in the State, endowed with a fund of $535,000. The finest and best equipped public hospital in the South. A large Roman Catholic hospital, Y. M. C. A. building, a Masonic temple and Scottish Rite cathedral, Elks, Knights of Columbus and Eagles build ings. Galveston has 31 churches for white peo ple and 12 churches for colored people, two or phan asylums, a home for homeless children and a home for aged women; the School of Medicine of the State University, 12 private or sectarian schools, a Roman Catholic Uni versity, two Roman Catholic academies, a bus iness college and public high school and seven graded schools for white children. One high
and two graded schools for colored children.
Docks and Terminals.— The city possesses 30 piers and berth room for 100 ocean-going vessels, coal elevators and floating bunker plants, fuel oil stations, 246 miles of standard gauge terminal tracks and 3,000,000 feet of covered storage space on water front. The Galveston Wharf Company in which the city owns a one-third interest has an improved chan nel frontage of 12,400 lineal feet and the Southern Pacific Terminal Company, 1,350 lineal feet. The city has 22,990 lineal feet of undeveloped channel frontage, a powerful wire less telegraph station, termini of the Mexican Telegraph Company, cable communication direct with Mexico and a United States quarantine station. There are commodious and modern immigration station and buildings. A United States revenue cutter is stationed at Galveston. The average yearly business passing over the Galveston docks is over $400,000,000. The ex port cargo in 1917 reached approximately $275,000,000. The facilities at Galveston for the proper storage of cotton are unequaled, there being ample space to store on end 913,500 bales. Galveston has a 10,000-ton dry dock and several ship repair plants. It has taken the national government 41 years and has cost $11,000,000 to develop the port of Galveston. It has a very large and impressively beautiful and well-fortified harbor, a channel six miles in length from open sea to docks, more than 32 feet of water on the bar with 35 feet on the inside, magnificent up-to-date system of docks, warehouses, compressers, fine grain elevators, railroad terminals and facilities and is well lo cated with respect to the Panama Canal. Cars are unloaded and released on an average within one and a half days after arrival. Grain ships are loaded in one day.