{"id":1774,"date":"2018-07-11T22:04:00","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T22:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/porthouston.com\/uncharted-waters-the-houston-ship-channels-beginning\/"},"modified":"2022-11-07T19:14:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T19:14:15","slug":"uncharted-waters-the-houston-ship-channels-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/porthouston.com\/uncharted-waters-the-houston-ship-channels-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"Uncharted Waters: The Houston Ship Channel&#8217;s Beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/porthouston.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Thomas-Ball-blog-story.jpg\" alt=\"Thomas Ball - blog story\" width=\"582\" style=\"width: 582px;\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em style=\"background-color: transparent;\"><strong>Caption: U.S. Congressman Tom Ball<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span>During the 1800s, U.S. Representative Tom Ball spent countless hours trying to convince his colleagues to support&nbsp;a deep-water port for Houston. In July of 1870, Congress designated Houston as a potential port \u2013 passing a bill chartering the Houston Ship Channel, and essentially marking the beginning of the Port of Houston.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In September 1900, a devastating hurricane slammed into Galveston, Texas, leaving&nbsp;behind one of the worst natural disasters in American history. More than 8,000 people lost their lives.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Tom Ball proposed a revolutionary concept. He suggested that Houston and the federal government share the cost&nbsp;of dredging a deep-water channel to Houston. The Congressional Rivers and Harbors Committee&nbsp;voted unanimously to accept the idea, which became known as the Houston Plan \u2013 and a nearby Texas city, Tomball,&nbsp;was later named after the congressman. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In 1911, a campaign was launched to persuade voters to approve $1.25 million in bonds to pay for the local share&nbsp;to dredge the waterway.&nbsp;Voters approved&nbsp;the measure by a margin of 16 to one, and with it the formation of the Harris County Houston Ship Channel&nbsp;Navigation District (today\u2019s Port of Houston Authority) to issue those bonds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The Houston Ship Channel has been an economic engine for over a century and remains the busiest and most productive waterway in the nation.&nbsp; Each year, the channel hosts more than 8,000 vessel calls and 200,000 barge movements.&nbsp; It supports the largest petrochemical complex in the nation and is critical to our country\u2019s energy and economic security. Port Houston is the non-federal sponsor of the Houston Ship Channel.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Learn more about Port Houston's history <a href=\"http:\/\/porthouston.com\/about-us\/background-and-history\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the 1800s, U.S. Representative Tom Ball spent countless hours trying to convince his colleagues to support a deep-water port for Houston. In July of 1870, Congress designated Houston as a potential port \u2013 passing a bill chartering the Houston Ship Channel. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/porthouston.com\/uncharted-waters-the-houston-ship-channels-beginning\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,86,88,107,124],"class_list":["post-1774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-channel","tag-history","tag-houston","tag-maritime","tag-ports"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Uncharted Waters: The Houston Ship Channel&#039;s Beginning - Port Houston<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/porthouston.com\/uncharted-waters-the-houston-ship-channels-beginning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Uncharted Waters: The Houston Ship Channel&#039;s Beginning - Port Houston\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"During the 1800s, U.S. Representative Tom Ball spent countless hours trying to convince his colleagues to support a deep-water port for Houston. 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