Brazos River Diversion and World War II
The port of Freeport had been built on the Brazos River four miles upstream. The river below the port required frequent dredging in order to accommodate larger ships. In 1929, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers diverted the course of Brazos River three miles west, leaving the four-mile segment of the Old Brazos as a stand-alone ship channel.
Diversion of the Brazos River and the formation of a tidal estuary deep enough to accommodate large vessels in the old river channel subsequently revived both Velasco and nearby Freeport. Construction of chemical-industry facilities during World War II increased available jobs, and the population grew from 900 in 1940, when the city was incorporated with E. F. Roeller as mayor, to 5,200 by 1950.
With a population estimated at 4,000 in 1956, Velasco was annexed by Freeport on July 27, 1957. The community subsequently became part of the Brazosport industrial and port area and Brazosport Independent School District.
Read more about this topic: Velasco, Texas, History
Famous quotes containing the words river, diversion, world and/or war:
“It is ... despair at the mutability of all created things that links the Artist and the Ascetic—a desire to purify and preserve—to set oneself apart—somehow—from the river flowing onward to the grave.”
—Michele Murray (1933–1974)
“Without [diversion] we would be in a state of weariness, and this weariness would spur us on to seek a more solid means of escaping from it. But diversion amuses us, and leads us unconsciously to death.”
—Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
“Many children grow through adolescence with no ripples whatever and land smoothly and predictably in the adult world with both feet on the ground. Some who have stumbled and bumbled through childhood suddenly burst into bloom. Most shake, steady themselves, zigzag, fight, retreat, pick up, take new bearings, and finally find their own true balance.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)
“O I know they make war because they want peace; they hate so that they may live; and they destroy the present to make the world safe for the future. When have they not done and said they did it for that?”
—Elizabeth Smart (1913–1986)