Texas City Dike Marks 100th Anniversary a Few Months Late

The strip of land jutting out more than five miles into Galveston Bay is a paradise for anglers and picnickers. But a century ago at its inception the Texas City Dike looked remarkably different.
  
At that time, it was a wooden pier designed to protect the Texas City Channel and marine commerce.
  
The Galveston County Daily News reports the dike -- the longest manmade pier in the world -- still serves those goals, but has also become an iconic fishing spot that boasts the second busiest boat launch on the Texas Gulf Coast.
  
June 1 marked the 100th anniversary of the dike, according to U.S. Army Corp of Engineers documents, the agency that constructed the project. During a previously planned movie and fireworks night on the dike last week, the city celebrated its centennial with a short tribute.
  
"It's been the piece that has really driven the ocean commerce for the city from the beginning," Texas City Mayor Matt Doyle said in an interview. "It's made our ship channel a very vibrant ship channel and created the petrochemical industry that we have here today."
  
Against the advice of engineers, Texas City businessmen in the late 1800s and early 1900s "dug a ship channel directly through and across the bay's natural water lane," city research compiled by librarians Berylyn Bazzoon and Janet Bazemore found.
  
But currents sent silt into the channel and made frequent dredging necessary to keep the channel open, according to research documents.
  
As a solution, the city put forward a plan to build a dike.
  
Congress in 1913 authorized the construction of the dike to divert the flow of silt from the Texas City Channel by steering the waters of Galveston Bay out to the Gulf of Mexico, according to historical research compiled by the city.
  
The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Galveston District led the construction, which cost $1.4 million.
  
The original dike was 5.34 miles -- slightly shorter than the 5.4 miles it extends now -- and made from timber.
  
In 1931, with convincing from local leaders, the corps added boulders and rocks to the formation to keep the dredged material added to the wood dike from washing back into the bay, documents said.
  
"Early on they recognized that it would be a great recreational thing but that was not he mission of the engineers," Texas City librarian Beth Steiner said.
  
The same year, Helen Moore, a state representative from Texas City, lobbied for and won approval of legislation that gave the city a deed to part of the dike and allowed for public recreation, according to the state's historical association.
  
The federal Works Progress Administration in the late 1930s paid for a roadway atop the dike -- a feature that paved the way for more tourism. The city now pays for the road maintenance.
  
Hurricane Ike in 2008 threatened to destroy the dike. The storm surge wiped out much of the road and the formations along the side of the dike. Recovery took two years and in all cost more than $6 million.
  
Today, the dike draws 510,000 car visits each year to its public beaches and four public boat ramps.
  
City officials this year intended to pay tribute to dike's centennial on its anniversary. But the date of its completion remained a mystery to the city until recently.
  
The U.S. Army Corp of Engineers worked with Steiner to determine its June 1 completion date.