The Gulf Coast gained its present configuration during the
most recent glacial period approximately 18
ka (thousands of years ago). Low global
sea levels allowed the Texas mainland to extend significantly farther south than it does presently, and the
Trinity River had carved a deep canyon through present-day Bolivar Roads (the exit of the Houston Ship Channel) on its way to the coast. As the glacial period came to a close, rising sea levels initially filled this narrow canyon, followed by the broad lowlands of present-day Trinity Bay. Rapid
sea level rise between 7.7 and 5.5 ka shifted the Gulf coastline northward to its contemporary latitude. The first substantial settlements in the area are believed to have been made by the
Karankawa and
Atakapan tribes, who lived throughout the
Gulf Coast region. in the early 19th century Though several
Spanish expeditions charted the Gulf Coast, it was explorer
José Antonio de Evia who, in 1785, gave the bay and the island the name
Gálvezton in honor of Spanish
viceroy Bernardo de Gálvez.
Louis Aury established a naval base at the harbor in 1816 to support the
Mexican War of Independence. When he abandoned the base, it was then taken over by pirate
Jean Lafitte, who temporarily transformed Galveston Island and the bay into a haven for outlaws before being ousted by the
United States Navy. However, separation from the
Union did not last long; the city's harbor was
blockaded by the federal navy starting in July 1861, followed by a full-scale
occupation after the
Battle of Galveston Harbor in October 1862. Despite this victory, the Union continued to blockade the outlets of Galveston Bay until the end of the war. , a famous 19th century Galveston resort The
Galveston Hurricane of 1900 devastated the city of Galveston and heavily damaged
communities around the bay. Growth moved inland to Houston, as fear of the risks posed by establishing businesses at Galveston limited the island's ability to compete. Texas City emerged as another important port in the area. Shipping traffic through the bay expanded dramatically after the federal government completed the dredging of the Houston Ship Channel to a depth of in 1914. The
Texas oil boom began in 1901, and by 1915, oil production by the bay was fully underway.
Oil wells and
refineries quickly developed throughout the area. By the end of the 1930s, the Port of Houston was the largest cotton port and the third largest port by overall tonnage in the United States. leading to pollution of the bay. In the 1970s the bay was described by U.S. Representative
Robert C. Eckhardt as "the most polluted body of water in the U.S." Extraction of oil and
groundwater, as well as large
wakes from increasing shipping in the bay, led to
land subsidence and erosion along the shoreline, especially in the Baytown–Pasadena area. Over the past few decades, approximately of the historic
San Jacinto battleground has been submerged; Sylvan Beach, a popular destination in La Porte, has been severely eroded, and the once prominent Brownwood neighborhood of Baytown has been abandoned. Today, the bay is a major destination for recreational and tourist activities, including
boating,
ecotourism, and
waterfowl hunting.
Incidents 2019 cargo plane crash Atlas Air Flight 3591 was a scheduled domestic cargo flight under the
Amazon Air banner between
Miami International Airport and
George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. On February 23, 2019, the
Boeing 767-375ER(BCF) crashed into Trinity Bay near
Anahuac, Texas, killing both crew members and a passenger, at approximately 12:45
CST (18:45
UTC). Shortly before impact the aircraft made a sharp turn south before going into a rapid descent. Witnesses described the plane as going into a nosedive and thunderous sounds before it crashed. Investigators from the
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA),
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) were deployed to the scene while dive teams from the
Texas Department of Public Safety,
Houston, and
Baytown police departments located the aircraft's flight recorders. The NTSB later determined that the crash was a result of the first officer's inappropriate response to an inadvertent activation of the airplane's go-around mode, resulting in his
spatial disorientation that led him to place the airplane in a steep descent from which the crew did not recover in time from.
2024 oil spill and partial bridge collapse On May 15, 2024, a tugboat leaving Texas International Terminals, a container terminal next to the Pelican Island causeway, the only bridge connecting
Pelican Island to the rest of Galveston, lost control of two barges it was pushing. One of the barges, operated by Martin Operating Partnership, then hit the bridge and two telephone poles at approximately 10:00 CDT (3:00 GMT) collapsing a portion of the bridge, causing a
diesel fuel spill, and causing a temporary power outage on the island. Two people were knocked off of the barge or jumped off, but they were quickly rescued. As a result of the collision, the bridge was closed. The barge, which reportedly has a capacity of , spilled between and of oil into Galveston Bay. Some spilled oil stayed on top of the barge and did not leak into the water. An approximate span of the
Gulf Intracoastal Waterway was shut down around the bridge in order to help crews clean up the oil spill. Galveston County officials began evacuations for the approximately 200 people who were on the island at the time of the collapse for anyone who needed to leave the island, but warned that they would be unlikely to be able to return in the near future. ==Features==