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Virginia Point enlivened by railroad bridge to Galveston Island
On this day in 1860, the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad
completed its bridge from Virginia Point to Galveston Island. Virginia
Point, on the mainland west of Galveston, was an outlying part of
Stephen F. Austin's Coast Colony. The bridge brought growth, as it
facilitated traffic between Galveston and Houston. Previously,
merchandise had to be unloaded at the point from trains, carried by the
steam ferryboat Texas across to Galveston, unloaded onto drays,
and unloaded again on the wharves. With the new 10,000-foot bridge in
service, trains came through Virginia Point daily. The causeway survived
the ravages of the Civil War, only to be destroyed by a hurricane in
1867. While repairs were being made, ferry boats again carried the
freight. In 1875 the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway constructed a
second wooden bridge. Other railroad interests brought a third railroad
bridge from North Galveston to Virginia Point in 1892, and Galveston
County built a steel wagon bridge in 1893. But the Galveston hurricane
of 1900 swept away the bridges and most of Virginia Point. A
reinforced-concrete causeway completed in 1911 carried the
Galveston-Houston Electric Railway, five steam railroads, and the county
highway. Virginia Point remained a train stop and fishing resort until
another hurricane wiped out the town in 1915. In 1936 the electric
railway abandoned its tracks as automobile traffic took over. The
University of Texas operated a shell and topsoil company in Virginia
Point until the 1950s. Texas City annexed the point in 1952, but never
included it in its seawall system. Increased shipping in the
Intracoastal Canal and bay has eroded portions of the old townsite,
which is now reached only at low tide by a shell road under the old
causeway
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- VIRGINIA POINT, TX
- GALVESTON, TX
- GALVESTON WHARVES
- GALVESTON, HOUSTON AND HENDERSON RAILROAD
- GALVESTON HURRICANE OF 1900
- HURRICANES
- GULF INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Frenchman, considered a troublemaker by the Spanish, dies in prison (1756)
- First Czech newspaper in Texas (1879)
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