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Houston Ship Channel Developments


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Texas History 101

While it can boast about the more than 6,300 ships that passed through its waters last year, the Port of Houston started out as a mere loading point for cotton on the way to the Port of Galveston.

by Kimberly Jeffries

The Houston Ship Channel is, no doubt, a fire-breathing force to be reckoned with. The leading U.S. port in foreign tonnage, and second only to the Port of South Louisiana in total tonnage, it

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You have to consider the logistics and the realities of putting an all out attack on a chemical plant or storage facility for such things to happen.

Granted, OKC proved that a single man can do alot of damage, but that's only against a single building.

Let me see if I can type this out into a coherrent thought that won't be TOTALLY be torn apart:

First off, we've had quite a number of accidents over the years and several major calamities have been averted because of safety valves and appropriate warnings when things DID go wrong.

Second, a plant is huge. Period. we're talking ACRES if not TENS (HUNDREDS?) of ACRES. The ability to be able to bypass the security with enough people/explosives to make it all the way to a critical area without SOME resistence is quite remote.

Third, if a plant was breached, it would take no less than taking over a control room AND setting off explosives in a critical area to do serious damage. Both objectives of which would raise serious alarms from any surviving workers that would at least call 911.

Industrial accidents happen quite a bit, we've had some fairly spectacular fires/explosions in Houstons past (anyone remember texas City or the explosion at Englewood yards?) and would cause nothing more than a major hiccup economically and relatively small numbers of loss of life (sorry, just a statement of fact).

In regards to the Houston Ship Channel, we're more than likely have a major incident of the channel being clogged while the mess is cleaned out of the way than for a major catastrophic even that would cause massive loss of life. The economic impact of that would be more detrimental to Houstons ability to recover than the loss of life. You can only see the number of ships leaving and entering the channel to see that.

Ricco

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If the editor had common sence, he would delete the post...

The writer of this topic is a "Micheal Moore" of sense. Making us all look bad...

Why give Terrorists, OR ANYONE, the idea? And do you remember the report, of what would happen if an atomic bomb went off Downtown? god, just open your arms to these people for ideas. I know they say "To prevent a catastrophe, think like a terrorist..." well don't publish it out for the world to see, and think about...

So stupid to even show anyone other then the FBI or Port Authority...

Next, they'll give out a perfect flight plan for one of the many Southwest Airplanes to just turn a little bit instead of landing at Hobby, and crashing it into the Chase or Wells Fargo Tower...

This is so obserd...

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  • 1 year later...
Texas History 101

While it can boast about the more than 6,300 ships that passed through its waters last year, the Port of Houston started out as a mere loading point for cotton on the way to the Port of Galveston.

by Kimberly Jeffries

The Houston Ship Channel is, no doubt, a fire-breathing force to be reckoned with. The leading U.S. port in foreign tonnage, and second only to the Port of South Louisiana in total tonnage, it’s the core of the petrochemical industry and a hotbed of international trade.

But the Port of Houston hasn’t always been the sixth-largest port in the world. While it can boast about the more than 6,300 ships that passed through its waters last year, the Port of Houston started out as a mere loading point for cotton on the way to the Port of Galveston, which according to the Handbook of Texas was widely considered the “best natural port in Texas.” The cotton would travel from Houston down the fifty or

so miles of the channel on riverboats or barges; when the cotton arrived in Galveston Bay, it would be transferred to seafaring ships and thus enter the international market. Galveston, which was declared a port of entry by the Congress of Mexico in 1825, is the second-oldest U.S. port in the Gulf of Mexico (the Port of New Orleans holds the top honors). By 1900, Galveston was number one in the U.S. in exporting cotton, and third in the country for exporting wheat.

That same year, Galveston’s momentum as an international port was halted by a storm that hit the afternoon of September 8. The Great Hurricane, as it came to be called, wreaked utter mayhem on the island, killing between six thousand and eight thousand residents. At the time, the city’s highest point of elevation was 8.7 feet, so the 15.7-foot storm surge left much of Galveston underwater. Winds between 130 miles per hour and 140 miles per hour pummeled Galveston, and with no seawalls to protect against damage to structural foundations, more than 3,600 buildings were ruined. The Great Hurricane remains the deadliest natural disaster in national history.

In the years after the storm, as Galveston struggled to regain lost ground in the trade industry, the Port of Houston thrived. The idea for the Houston Ship Channel was conceived years earlier, in the 1850s, by unhappy Houston merchants who disliked the Galveston Wharf Company, which ran the Port of Galveston. The businessmen envisioned a route that would bypass Galveston, and after the Civil War, they created the Buffalo Bayou Ship Channel Company and then convinced Congress to declare Houston a port. Responsibility for the channel passed through multiple hands throughout the course of its development, but it was under Charles Morgan’s direction when a channel from Galveston Bay to Houston was dredged. The federal government bought the channel in 1890 and has since been responsible for its maintenance. The Houston Ship Channel was officially completed in 1914, and five years later the Merry Mount brought the first direct shipment of cotton from Houston to the international market. Within ten years, Houston became the number one port for cotton in the U.S., taking the title from Galveston, fifty miles southeast.

Today, the Houston Ship Channel hosts a proliferation of commodities that are a little more malevolent than fluffy cotton. Its top import and export is petroleum, and it also traffics petroleum products, crude fertilizers and minerals, and organic chemicals. With up to 190 million tons of goods coming in annually, such as in 2003, the Houston Ship Channel is a high-octane super highway. The channel’s considerable size and concentration of hazardous chemicals make it vulnerable, but the fear is that the attack won’t come from Mother Nature.

Excellent information! Is the Port of Houston the world's largest inland port?

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When the Panama canal is completed in 2015 Houston will get more tonnage.  This year Houston surpassed New York for exports.  This will make Houston a Global city with the number one port in the United States.  Two International airports, the largest medical center in the world.  And the Energy capital of the world.  That is why they are expanded the port.  

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It's no secret... The Bayport Cruise Terminal has been teeming with activity. With the on/off ramps being built for Port Rd. It will make it easier to avoid LBC & the tracks. Rumor is Norwegian. There is also room for future expansion of the cruise terminal docks but those have been in the talks since the mid 2000's.

Edit: Houston is a Gamma World City... Has been for some time.

Edited by Montrose1100
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It's no secret... The Bayport Cruise Terminal has been teeming with activity. With the on/off ramps being built for Port Rd. It will make it easier to avoid LBC & the tracks. Rumor is Norwegian. There is also room for future expansion of the cruise terminal docks but those have been in the talks since the mid 2000's.

Edit: Houston is a Gamma World City... Has been for some time.

 

It's not a rumor.  Norwegian announced some time ago that they will begin cruising out of the Port of Houston's Bayport Cruise Terminal in 2014.

 

Princess Cruises started cruising from the terminal today.

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And at the rate we are spreading out our towers, we will remain that way until the floods come.

That's ridiculous. All our towers have to be in the same place to increase our World City ranking? I think the fact that we are about to have 2 international airports, $35 billion in port expansions in the next 3 years, and an increasingly important energy industry to the world economy would have a bigger impact. And if the rumors are true that there will be more cruises bringing more tourists to city is just icing on the cake!

Edited by ClutchCity
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That's ridiculous. All our towers have to be in the same place to increase our World City ranking? I think the fact that we are about to have 2 international airports, $35 billion in port expansions in the next 3 years, and an increasingly important energy industry to the world economy would have a bigger impact. And if the rumors are true that there will be more cruises bringing more tourists to city is just icing on the cake!

 

Tourists? lol... they're here to see.... what? Traffic jams? Boxy, boring, and bland skyscraper designs - located miles and miles apart? Crappy sports teams? Fake space shuttles? Polluted bayous? Come on man, give me a break. Whatever tourism we had pretty much died when Astroworld shuttered and our manned spaceflight capability eroded. The closest thing we have to tourism are the energy related travelers who are forced to come here and wealthy (or not so wealthy) foreign shoppers. That's it.

 

 

You underestimate the benefits and synergies that having a dense downtown can do for a city's infrastructure, transportation/mobility, vibrancy, skyscraper design, liveability, etc, etc.

 

 

So yes. Having towers in the same "place" does have the potential to do wonders for you (city).

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It's no secret... The Bayport Cruise Terminal has been teeming with activity. With the on/off ramps being built for Port Rd. It will make it easier to avoid LBC & the tracks. Rumor is Norwegian. There is also room for future expansion of the cruise terminal docks but those have been in the talks since the mid 2000's.

Edit: Houston is a Gamma World City... Has been for some time.

 

According to this we're a Beta+ city...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_city

 

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Tourists? lol... they're here to see.... what? Traffic jams? Boxy, boring, and bland skyscraper designs - located miles and miles apart? Crappy sports teams? Fake space shuttles? Polluted bayous? Come on man, give me a break. Whatever tourism we had pretty much died when Astroworld shuttered and our manned spaceflight capability eroded. The closest thing we have to tourism are the energy related travelers who are forced to come here and wealthy (or not so wealthy) foreign shoppers. That's it.

You underestimate the benefits and synergies that having a dense downtown can do for a city's infrastructure, transportation/mobility, vibrancy, skyscraper design, liveability, etc, etc.

So yes. Having towers in the same "place" does have the potential to do wonders for you (city).

Not entirely true. There's sports teams, shopping venues, restaurants, museums, and other "city" attractions, and Houston draws like a magnet from a rather vast radius, easily encompassing Baton Rouge and College Station (among others).

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