Galveston Seawall

United States historic place

Galveston Seawall

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

Texas State Antiquities Landmark

Galveston Seawall during construction

Galveston Seawall

Show map of Texas

Galveston Seawall

Show map of the United States

Location| Seawall Blvd.,
Galveston, Texas
Coordinates| 29°18′09″N 94°46′27″W﻿ / ﻿29.30250°N 94.77417°W﻿ / 29.30250; -94.77417﻿ (Galveston Seawall)
Area| 8 acres (3.2 ha)
Built| 1902 (1902)
Built by| J.M. O`Rourke & Co.
Architect| Gen. H.M. Robert
Architectural style| Protective Seawall
NRHP reference No.| 77001443[1]
TSAL No.| 8200000269
Significant dates
Added to NRHP| August 18, 1977
Designated TSAL| January 1, 1981

The Galveston Seawall is a seawall in Galveston, Texas, that was built after the Galveston hurricane of 1900 for protection from future hurricanes. Construction began in September 1902, and the initial segment was completed on July 29, 1904. From 1904 to 1963, the seawall was extended from 3.3 miles (5.3 km) to over 10 miles (16 km).[2]

## Description

[edit]

Although the Seawall performed as intended, it created an unintended and insurmountable consequence: passive erosion resulting in the gradual disappearance of the once-wide beach and the resort business with it. "Within twenty years, the city had lost one hundred yards of sand. People who once watched auto racing on a wide beach were left with a narrow strip of sand at low tide and a gloomy vista of waves on rocks when the tide was high."[3] Houston soon overtook Galveston as the major city in the region.

Reporting in the aftermath of the 1983 Hurricane Alicia, the Corps of Engineers estimated that $100 million in damage was avoided because of the seawall.[4] On September 13, 2008, Hurricane Ike's large waves over-topped the seawall.[5] As a result, a commission was established by the Texas governor to investigate preparing for and mitigating future disasters.[6]

A proposal has been put forth to build an "Ike Dike", a massive levee system that would protect the Galveston Bay and the important industrial facilities that line the coast and the Houston Ship Channel from a future, potentially more destructive storm. The proposal has gained widespread support from a variety of business interests. However, this proposal never passed the conceptual stage. Since 2009 there has been many similar propositions brought forth for a more practical layered network to consist of smaller, local levees and natural protections have been put forward by the SSPEED Center at Rice University and the University of Houston. These proposals include a surge gate at the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel connecting adjacent high ground near the Fred Hartman Bridge and hard protections for the west shore of Galveston Bay and around the densely developed east end of Galveston Island. Also included is the proposed lower coastal Lone Star Coastal National Recreation Area.

Texas F.M. 3005 is known as Seawall Boulevard where it runs along the seawall. The sidewalk adjacent to Seawall Boulevard on top of the seawall is claimed to be the longest continuous sidewalk in the world at 10.3 miles (16.6 km) long.[7]

The seawall is 10 miles (16 km) long. It is approximately 17 feet (5.2 m) high and 16 feet (4.9 m) thick at its base. The seawall was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and designated a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers in 2001.[8][9]

Many miles of the seawall are painted with murals. These huge murals are painted by children and depict underwater life.

## Gallery

[edit]

* Postcard of the construction of the Galveston Seawall, undated.

* Postcard of the Galveston Seawall, undated.

* Damage to Seawall after 1915 Hurricane.

* Galveston Seawall paintings.

* Sea Wall and beach, Galveston, Texas (postcard, circa 1907).

* Workers repairing Seawall Boulevard after 1915 Galveston hurricane.

## See also

[edit]

* National Register of Historic Places portal
* Texas portal

* 1900 Storm Memorial, installed along the Seawall
* The Dolphins (sculpture), installed along the Seawall
* National Register of Historic Places listings in Galveston County, Texas

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
2. ^ SEAWALL Archived 2009-03-21 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 2008-09-17.
3. ^ "Against the Tide".
4. ^ "Hurricane Alicia, 1983". USA Today. September 21, 2005. Retrieved February 12, 2017.
5. ^ Casselman, Ben (September 12, 2008). "As Waters Rise, Many Decline To Leave Galveston Island". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved September 13, 2008. "By 4 p.m., waves were overtopping the city's 17-foot-tall seawall and parts of...island were unreachable even by rescue crews."
6. ^ Casselman, Ben (June 4, 2009). "Planning the 'Ike Dike' Defense". Wall Street Journal.
7. ^ Galveston, Texas Outdoor Recreation & Nature Accessed 2012-03-15.
8. ^ Moran, Kevin (September 9, 1990). "City has raised storm preparedness to a fine art". Houston Chronicle.
9. ^ "Galveston Seawall and Grade Raising Historical Marker". The Historical Marker Database. Retrieved April 23, 2021.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Austin, A. (March 1905). "Galveston, The City Reclaimed: Marvelous Recuperation of a Town Wiped Out Four Years Ago". Pearson's Magazine. XIII (3): 211–219. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
* Gillette, Halbert Powers; Hill, Charles Shattuck (1908). Concrete Construction: Methods and Cost. New York: The Myron C. Clark Publishing Co. pp. 268–269. Retrieved July 15, 2009. (Diagrams of the movable concrete mixer plant used for construction of the seawall)
* Putnam, Frank (June 1907). "Galveston, An Epitome Of American Pluck". The New England Magazine. XXXVI (4): 387–403. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
* Shaw, Albert (November 1903). "Galveston's Great Sea Wall". The American Monthly Review of Reviews. XXVIII: 574–576\. 5. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
* Slosson, W. B. (June 16, 1904). "The New Galveston". The Independent. LVI (2898): 1382–1387. Retrieved July 15, 2009.
* Williams, Clement Clarence (1922). The Design Of Masonry Structures And Foundations. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company. p. 248. Retrieved July 15, 2009. (Diagram and description of the geometry of the seawall to dissipate wave energy)
* "Raising the Grade of Galveston". Locomotive Firemen's Magazine. XXXVI (5): 643–647\. May 1904. Retrieved July 15, 2009.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Galveston Seawall.

* One-hundred-year-old photos of the Galveston seawall Archived September 17, 2008, at the Wayback Machine

* v
* t
* e

City of Galveston

Attractions|

* Ashton Villa
* Balinese Room
* Bishop's Palace
* East End Historic District
* Elissa (ship)
* Fort Crockett
* Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier
* Galveston Island State Park
* Galveston Pirate SC
* Galveston Railroad Museum
* Galveston Seawall
* Galveston Island Trolley
* Grand 1894 Opera House
* Lone Star Flight Museum
* Moody Gardens
* Moody Plaza
* Ocean Star Offshore Drilling Rig & Museum
* Old Red
* Rosenberg Library
* Sts. Constantine and Helen Serbian Orthodox Church
* St. Mary Cathedral Basilica
* Schlitterbahn Galveston Island Waterpark
* Seawolf Park
* Strand Historic District
* 1861 United States Customs and Federal Court House
* USS Cavalla
* USS Stewart

Industries|

* American National Insurance Company
* Galveston Railroad
* Island Transit
* Moody Foundation
* Moody National Bank
* Port of Galveston
* Texas First Bank
* Scholes International Airport at Galveston

History|

* Battle of Galveston Harbor
* First Battle of Galveston
* Second Battle of Galveston
* The Beach Hotel
* Fort Point Light
* Galveston Railroad
* Galveston Hurricane of 1900
* Galveston Hurricane of 1915
* Galveston Movement
* Jewish history
* Karankawa Indians
* Free State of Galveston
* Strand Historic District
* 1861 United States Customs and Federal Court House
* Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway

Geography|

* Galveston Bay
* Galveston Island
* Gulf of Mexico
* San Luis Pass
* West Bay

Education|

* Galveston College
* Galveston ISD
* Ball HS
* Central HS
* O'Connell College Preparatory School
* Texas A&M University at Galveston
* University of Texas Medical Branch

| Defunct|

* Central HS
* Dominican HS

|

Healthcare
& research|

* Galveston National Biocontainment Laboratory
* John Sealy Hospital
* Sealy & Smith Foundation
* Shriners Hospital for Children
* Transitional Learning Center
* University of Texas Medical Branch

Media|

| Newspapers|

* The Daily News

|

Television|

* KLTJ (Daystar)
* KTMD (Telemundo)

AM radio|

* KGBC

FM radio|

* KOVE

VHF radio|

* KHB40

Other|

* Galveston Causeway
* Mayor
* List of museums in the Texas Gulf Coast
* Bolivar Bridge
* A Weekend in September
* Battle on the Bay
* Mythic Galveston

* v
* t
* e

National Register of Historic Places in Texas

Lists
by county|

* Anderson
* Andrews
* Angelina
* Aransas
* Archer
* Armstrong
* Atascosa
* Austin
* Bailey
* Bandera
* Bastrop
* Baylor
* Bee
* Bell
* Bexar
* Blanco
* Borden
* Bosque
* Bowie
* Brazoria
* Brazos
* Brewster
* Briscoe
* Brooks
* Brown
* Burleson
* Burnet
* Caldwell
* Calhoun
* Callahan
* Cameron
* Camp
* Carson
* Cass
* Castro
* Chambers
* Cherokee
* Childress
* Clay
* Cochran
* Coke
* Coleman
* Collin
* Collingsworth
* Colorado
* Comal
* Comanche
* Concho
* Cooke
* Coryell
* Cottle
* Crane
* Crockett
* Crosby
* Culberson
* Dallam
* Dallas
* Dawson
* Deaf Smith
* Delta
* Denton
* DeWitt
* Dickens
* Dimmit
* Donley
* Duval
* Eastland
* Ector
* Edwards
* El Paso
* Ellis
* Erath
* Falls
* Fannin
* Fayette
* Fisher
* Floyd
* Foard
* Fort Bend
* Franklin
* Freestone
* Frio
* Gaines
* Galveston
* Garza
* Gillespie
* Glasscock
* Goliad
* Gonzales
* Gray
* Grayson
* Gregg
* Grimes
* Guadalupe
* Hale
* Hall
* Hamilton
* Hansford
* Hardeman
* Hardin
* Harris
* Harrison
* Hartley
* Haskell
* Hays
* Hemphill
* Henderson
* Hidalgo
* Hill
* Hockley
* Hood
* Hopkins
* Houston
* Howard
* Hudspeth
* Hunt
* Hutchinson
* Irion
* Jack
* Jackson
* Jasper
* Jeff Davis
* Jefferson
* Jim Hogg
* Jim Wells
* Johnson
* Jones
* Karnes
* Kaufman
* Kendall
* Kenedy
* Kent
* Kerr
* Kimble
* King
* Kinney
* Kleberg
* Knox
* La Salle
* Lamar
* Lamb
* Lampasas
* Lavaca
* Lee
* Leon
* Liberty
* Limestone
* Lipscomb
* Live Oak
* Llano
* Loving
* Lubbock
* Lynn
* Madison
* Marion
* Martin
* Mason
* Matagorda
* Maverick
* McCulloch
* McLennan
* McMullen
* Medina
* Menard
* Midland
* Milam
* Mills
* Mitchell
* Montague
* Montgomery
* Moore
* Morris
* Motley
* Nacogdoches
* Navarro
* Newton
* Nolan
* Nueces
* Ochiltree
* Oldham
* Orange
* Palo Pinto
* Panola
* Parker
* Parmer
* Pecos
* Polk
* Potter
* Presidio
* Rains
* Randall
* Reagan
* Real
* Red River
* Reeves
* Refugio
* Roberts
* Robertson
* Rockwall
* Runnels
* Rusk
* Sabine
* San Augustine
* San Jacinto
* San Patricio
* San Saba
* Schleicher
* Scurry
* Shackelford
* Shelby
* Sherman
* Smith
* Somervell
* Starr
* Stephens
* Sterling
* Stonewall
* Sutton
* Swisher
* Tarrant
* Taylor
* Terrell
* Terry
* Throckmorton
* Titus
* Tom Green
* Travis
* Trinity
* Tyler
* Upshur
* Upton
* Uvalde
* Val Verde
* Van Zandt
* Victoria
* Walker
* Waller
* Ward
* Washington
* Webb
* Wharton
* Wheeler
* Wichita
* Wilbarger
* Willacy
* Williamson
* Wilson
* Winkler
* Wise
* Wood
* Yoakum
* Young
* Zapata
* Zavala

National parks|

* Big Bend National Park
* Guadalupe Mountains National Park

Other lists|

* Bridges
* National Historic Landmarks
* National Natural Landmarks
* Recorded Texas Historic Landmarks

* United States National Register of Historic Places listings
* Keeper of the Register
* History of the National Register of Historic Places
* Property types
* Historic district
* Contributing property

*[No.]: number
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template