HOUSTON, Tex., city and county-seat of Harris County, on the Houston Ship Channel and the Houston and Texas Central; Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio; Texas and New Orleans; Beaumont, Sour Lake and Western; Houston East and West Texas; International and Great Northern; Trinity and Brazos Val ley; San Antonio and Aransas Pass; Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe; Missouri, Kansas and Texas; Saint Louis, Brownsville and Mexico; Galveston, Houston and Henderson; Texas Transportation Company, Sugarland Railway, and Hou'ston and Brazos Valley railroads, 48 miles northwest of Galveston. It is at the highest point in the State, permanently ac cessible by water from the Gulf of Mexico.
The Houston Ship Chan nel, formerly known as the Buffalo Bayou, which furnishes an outlet to the sea 50 miles distant, has been navigated from the earliest days of the city's history. The work of widen. ing and deepening it at a total cost of $4,500, 000, was completed in 1914. after considerable delay, and when half of the final appropriation of $2,500,000 necessary to finish the work, on the offer of the Harris County Navigation Dis trict, was accepted by the Federal government. It now admits of the passage of large ocean steamers, and the government stands pledged to maintain it forever. The ship channel has been the greatest factor in the development of the city. Its banks offer excellent sites for industrial enterprises, which can acquire the ownership of their wharves and warehouses, and many large manufacturing plants are al ready fixed there, including those of the Hous ton Packing Company, The Texas Company, Bayou City Compress, Density Cotton Yard. International Press, Magnolia Compress and Warehouse Company, Merchants Compress Company, Shippers Compress Company, Stand ard Compress Company, R. R. Dancy & Co., Merchants and Planters Oil Company, Nelms Kehoe Cotton Dock Company, Armour Fertil izer Company, Calhoun Pattern, Foundry and Machine Company, Fidelity Chemical Corpora tion, Houston Lighting and Power Company Houston Gas and Fuel Company. Pritchard
Rice Mills, Galena Oil Refinery, Sinclair Oil Refinery, Universal Shipbuilding Company, Midland Bridge Company, Houston-Humble Oil Company Refinery, Pacific Chemical Com pany, Gulf Refining Company (mixing plant), Peden Iron and Steel Company, Schuhmacher Grocery Company, Farmers Oil Company, Texas Portland Cement Company. Regular steamship service has been established between Houston, Philadelphia and New York City, and also with Tampa, Fla., Tampico, Mexico, and other points, and the completion of the Intercoastal Canal further facilitates transportation. Hous ton is also the great railroad centre of the Southwest and the headquarters of the larger lines as listed above.
Being the centre of a rich lumber and agricultural region, it is the dis tributing point of most of the raw material of the State, and the largest inland port corion market in the world. Its extensive cotton plants handle over 1,000,000 bales annually, and over 3,000,000 bales are marketed through Houston. It is the headquarters of 23 oil cor porations and 47 lumber corporations, and has important rice mills, cotton-seed oil and sugar refineries, lard factories, fertilizing plants, etc., making a total of 369 factories turning out 283 different articles with an approximate value of $63,000,000.
There are six national banks, two State banks and six trust companies, with a combined capital of $9,000,000. The combined deposits in November 1918 amounted to $53,210,821.
Houston has more skyscrapers than any other city of equal population. Prom inent among these are the Texas Oil Company building (costing $1,000,000), the Union Na tional Bank, the Kress, Mason and Foster build ings. Among the principal edifices are the city hall (with new annex), the city audi torium (costing $400,000), the Carnegie library and Houston Lyceum, union station, the market. City Hospital, Cotton Exchange, United States government building, South End Junior High School (costing $325,500) and Rice Institute.