Galveston Bay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Galveston Bay is a large estuary located along Texas's upper coast. The Galveston Bay system consists of five subbays: Christmas Bay, West Bay, Lower Galveston Bay, Upper Galveston Bay, East Bay, and Trinity Bay. The bay is fed by the Trinity River and the San Jacinto River, numerous local bayous and incoming tides from the Gulf of Mexico. The bay covers approximately 600 square miles (1,500 km²), and is 30 miles (50 km) long and 17 miles (27 km) wide. Galveston Bay is on average 7-9 feet (3 m) deep. The bay has three inlets at the Gulf of Mexico: Bolivar Roads (the exit of the Houston Ship Channel) between Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula, San Luis Pass to the West, and Rollover Pass to the East.
The Houston Ship Channel, connecting the Port of Houston to the Gulf, passes through Galveston Bay. Houston, Texas is the largest city on the bay, while smaller ones include Galveston, Pasadena, Baytown, Texas City, and Anahuac. Four counties border the bay; Brazoria, Chambers, Harris, and Galveston County.
The bay provides nursery and spawning grounds for large amounts of marine life, and is important for both commercial and recreational fishing.
[edit] References in popular culture
- Bruce Springsteen references Galveston Bay in the song with the same name on the album The Ghost of Tom Joad.
[edit] External links
- Galveston Bay from the Handbook of Texas Online
- See an 1853 map Preliminary chart of San Luis Pass, Texas / from a trigonometrical survey under the direction of A.D. Bache ; triangulation by James S. Williams ; topography by J.M. Wampler ; hydrography by the party under the command of H.S. Stellwagen ; engg. by E. Yeager & J.J. Knight ; redd. drng. by E. Freyhold., hosted by the Portal to Texas History.
- Galveston Bay Status and Trends
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