BACLIFF, TEXAS. Bacliff is on Farm Road 646 and Galveston Bay sixteen miles northwest of Galveston in north central Galveston County. Originally a summer weekend resort, the community was known as Clifton-by-the-Sea until the late 1940s or early 1950s. In 1933 Clifton had a population of fifty and two businesses, and from 1940 to 1949 it had 100 residents and four businesses. Both names, Bacliff and Clifton-by-the-Sea, were used to refer to the community for a time after the Bacliff post office was established in 1961. That year the town registered 1,707 residents and twenty-five businesses. It grew to a population of 1,782 and seventeen businesses by 1966. By 1986 Bacliff had become a residential community for workers who commuted to jobs throughout the area; it had a population of 4,851 and nineteen businesses. In 1990 the community had six churches, a school, twenty-seven businesses, and a population of 5,549.