Exactly 100 years ago, in January 1925, a giant dredging machine showed up on the city’s bayfront to begin digging out a 25-foot deep channel that would become the Port of Corpus Christi. Today, the port has become the third largest in the United States and stands on the verge of another milestone in its history. In a few short months, a new high bridge will open, allowing the port to handle even larger ocean-going ships. The economic dynamo that is the Port of Corpus Christi guarantees a bright future for the city and its people. The opening of the deep water port in 1926 has been described as the most important event in the city’s history, and the story of its construction is fascinating.
In 1845, the unincorporated town of Corpus Christi was the site of a massive occupation by the United States Army under the command of Gen. Zachary Taylor. Taylor’s army camped along the shoreline of Corpus Christi Bay, awaiting orders from Washington, D.C., before heading south into the war with Mexico. The army encampment was captured in a drawing by Daniel Whiting, a U.S. Army Captain.
In the foreground of the drawing can be seen a narrow and shallow waterway known as Hall’s Bayou. The bayou apparently got its name from a man named John Hall, who had a home on the banks of the waterway. In future years, the bayou would separate downtown Corpus Christi from a peninsula that was called “El Rincon”, north of the city. Homes on El Rincon began to appear in the early 1870s after the peninsula was surveyed and given the name “Brooklyn Subdivision”… the city’s first suburb. By the early 1900’s, it would become known as “North Beach”.
The bayou was little more than an inconvenience for people traveling onto and out of North Beach. It was often filled with trash and debris washed in from the bay. For decades, Corpus Christi’s leaders dreamed of a deep water port for the city, and Hall’s Bayou was seen as a natural site for a port’s construction. But the idea remained only a dream. In 1907, the bayou’s owner, Capt. Andy Anderson announced plans to dredge out the bayou and make it a safe harbor for small yachts and pleasure boats.
The deepening of the bayou allowed fresh saltwater from the bay to cover marshy salt flats that had been a nasty-smelling eyesore for years. Anderson also constructed a new wooden bridge over the bayou, providing easy access to North Beach. In 1914, Anderson reversed course and announced plans to fill in the bayou and sell lots on the new land for residential housing. But that never happened.
It was not until the disastrous Hurricane of 1919 that serious talk of a deep water port began to be heard. The city had been decimated by the hurricane. Virtually every building in the downtown area had been damaged or destroyed, and every structure on North Beach but one (the Beach Hotel) was gone.
A deep water port was seen as a way to help the city recover from the storm. In 1922, city leaders secured Congressional approval for the Port and federal funding was secured in 1923. It called for a 200-foot wide, 25-foot deep channel to be dredged across Corpus Christi Bay from the Gulf. Hall’s Bayou was to become the entrance to the Port with cargo docks and a turning basin for ocean-going ships. On May 23, 1924, contracts were awarded for the dredging of the ship channel and turning basin, construction of a temporary bridge over Hall’s Bayou, and the building of bulkheads, docks, wharves, and warehouses. The Caller called this the greatest day in the history of Corpus Christi since the founding of the city itself. The decades-long dream of a deep water port was about to become reality.
On January 16, 1925, the “John Jacobson Dredge” out of Galveston arrived at the entrance to Hall’s Bayou to begin cutting the 25-foot-deep entrance to the new, deep-water Port of Corpus Christi. Large crowds of spectators came daily to watch the Jacobson Dredge dig its way into the mainland at Hall’s Bayou. At the same time, Austin Bridge Co., which had recently built a causeway across Nueces Bay, began construction of a temporary wooden bridge over the bayou for rail and auto traffic. It would remain until a permanent steel bridge was constructed at the harbor’s entrance.
The contract for that bridge, which would later become known as the “Bascule Bridge”, was awarded to “Wisconsin Bridge and Iron Co.” of Kansas City. Within several months after dredging began, all traces of the old “Hall’s Bayou” had been erased. Corpus Christi’s new deep-water port would open on September 14, 1926.
Robert Parks is a special contributor to KRIS 6 News. Parks was a history teacher at Carroll High School for 19 years and is now retired. His knowledge of Corpus Christi history makes him a unique expert in the subject.
