Texas.—The Galveston, Tex., district in cludes 25 rivers and harbors. The entrance to Galveston Harbor is protected by two rubble stone jetties extending from Galveston Island, which is 28 miles long, and Bolivar Peninsula out into the Gulf. The former is six and three fourths miles and the latter is four and three fourths miles long, their outer ends being 1,000 fret apart. The channel is 30 feet deep and 800 feet wide. Galveston channel is 30 feet deep and 1,200 feet wide from the outer end more than four miles westward to 51st street in Galveston, which is to be extended, but at the reduced width of 1,000 feet to 57th street. The seawall five miles long protecting the en trance to the harbor is to be extended. The terminal facilities include a wharf system adequate to accommodate 63 or more ocean vessels, several miles of piers, grain elevators, transfer carriers and warehouses. • The ton nage of the port of Galveston in 1917 was 2,965,937 tons and the number of vessels enter and departing from the port during the was 1,539. A channel NO feet wide and r feet deep and four miles long connects Galveston Harbor with Port Bolivar at the end of the Bolivar Peninsula, where there is a turn ing basin 1.000 feet square. The port is equipped with slips, piers, wharves and ware houses. Its tonnage in 1917 was 109,227 tons. The Houston Ship Canal, 25 feet deep and 150 feet wide on the bottom, extends from Gal veston Harbor across Galveston Bay with a bottom width, up the Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou to a turning basin 600 feet in diameter at Long Beach and thence by a channel eight feet deep and 40 feet wide through Buffalo Bayou to Houston, Tex. The entire length of the improved waterway is 50 miles. It is pro tected through upper Galveston Bay a dike nearly five miles long. There are ware houses, terminals, railway tracks and other terminal facilities at Houston and a lane of steamships between Houston aneew York City. The tonnage of Houston in 1917 was 1,161,424 tons. Some other bayous and streams entering Galveston Bay have been im proved for short distances under various river and harbor acts of Congress, authorizing the improvement of West Galveston Bay channel, Double Bayou and the mouths of adjacent streams. In 1851-53 the West Galveston Bay and Brazos River Canal was constructed paralleling the coast hut from one to four miles therefrom. It was 10 miles long and had a depth of six feet and a width of 100 feet. It was purchased by the t'nited States govern ment in 1892 at a cost of $30.000. A new water way with a channel five feet deep and 40 feet wide on the bottom is being constructed from West Galveston Bay, through Oyster Bay and along the route of the Galveston and Brazos River Canal to Brazos River. Chocolate and Bastrop bayous and Oyster Creek are cams ly tributary to that waterway. The channel between Brazos River and Matagorda Bay, a distance of 32 miles, is to be five feet deep and 40 feet wide on the bottom. At the mouth of Brazos River and at Matagorda are wharves, docks and fish and oyster houses. That forms a part of the 202 miles of inland waterway extending from Galveston to Corpus Christi. The Guadalupe River is to have a channel five felt deep and 40 feet wide on the bottom for 52 miles to Victoria from San An tonio Bay, which is 16 miles across, also to be dredged to similar dimensions to the main line of the inland waterway.
The channel from Pass Cavallo to Port Lavaca, Tex., a distance of eight miles, is to have a depth of seven feet and a width of 80 feet. The channel from Pass Cavallo, the west end of Matagorda Bay, to Aransas Pass, extends through Espiritu Santo, San Antonio Mesquite and Aransas bays and is 63 miles long. It is also to have a depth of five feet and a width of 40 feet It is equipped with wharves on Aransas Bay and at some other places. From Aransas Pass it follows Turtle Cove and passes through Corpus Christi Bay. That section of
the inland waterway is 21% miles long. Free port Harbor is at the mouth of Brazos River and is protected by parallel north and south jetties a mile more or less in length, and is being improved for six and one-half miles to Velasco, the channel being 18 feet deep and 150 feet wide. There are some wharves there open to the public and regular sailings of ves sels therefrom to New York. The tonnage of the port in 1917 was 334.693 tons.
The Brazos River is 950 miles long and is navigable to Bolivar Landing. It had a depth of four to 20 feet above that point to Old Washington, 2S4 miles from its mouth, and i that section is to be cleared. There is hut little traffic on that river. It has been proposed to improve its channel to a depth of four feet as far as Waco by the construction of locks and dams and by dredging the open channel for 103 miles. Aransas is to be protected by two nibble stone jetties. the north two and ihree-fonrths and the south one and three-fourths mites long, and by a dike on Saint Joseph Island. three and three-fourths miles long, connecting with the north jetty.
The channel up to the town of Port Aransas is 100 feet wide and 17 feet deep, but down toward the Gulf it is 400 feet wide and 25 feet deep and still farther out it is 1,200 feet wide and 25 feet deep out between the jetties, where the dredged channel is to be 600 feet wide. The Harbor Island Basin will be thus extended. Other channels have been dredged leading from Harbor Island Basin.
The Dallas district includes 11 rivers and harbors. Port Arthur Canal. seven miles long. extends from Sabine Pass to Port Arthur docks near Taylors Bayou. Sabine Pass, seven miles in length with a width varying from Ijon to 5,000 feet, connects Sabine Lake with the Gulf of Mexico. Its entrance is protected by jetties extending out four miles, between which is a channel 26 feet deep and 200 feet wide The channel through Port Arthur Canal is to be 26 feet deep and 150 feet wide to Fort Arthur, where there are two turning basin' 25 feet one 600 feet by 1,700 feet and the other by 1,800 feet. At Sabine are wharves and other facilities. In 1917 the tonnage on the Port Arthur Canal was 6.984.286 tons.
That canal cost $1,029,982 and was trans ferred to the United States government without Burge_ The Sabine River, 550 miles long and XI) feet wide, enters Sabine Lake through three passes. Neches River, 300 miles long and 650 feet aide, flews into the same lake. A new waterway starting from Port Arthur Canal has a channel 25 feet deep and 90 feet wide through the land and 115 feet wide in the open lake and 150 feet wide in the open rivers and ex tends through the Sabine-Neches Canal and Neches River to Orange on the Sabine River and from the mouth of Neches River to Beau mont on that riser, terminating in a turning basin 5C10 feet by 1,500 feet on each stream. There are some terminal facilities at Beaumont in touch with ocean-going vessels. The ton nage over the Sabinc-Neches Canal in 1917 was 1,437,480 tons and on the Sabine River 215,605 tons and on the Neches River was 1,066, 310 tons. Trinity River, Texas, 760 miles long and discharging into Galveston Bay, is being aa/coed by the construction of dams and k and by dredging. Thirty-seven locks and dams were recommended by the Engineers of the L'nited States arm,v. Those locks have chambers 140 feet long. 50 feet wide and a navi pbk depth of six feet over the mitre sills. In 1917 only nine locks were completed and navi gation was practicable as far as Liberty. 41% rules above the mouth of Trinity River. To completely canalize the river to Dallas Tex., 512 miles above its mouth and 370 feet above the tide water, is the present project partially com pleted. The city of Dallas is bearing part of the expense.