Houston started out as a hamlet.
Gail and Thomas H. Borden surveyed and mapped the town in typical grid fashion,
with wide streets running parallel and perpendicular to the area's system of bayous.
The city was granted incorporation on June 5, 1837, and James S. Holman became
the first mayor.
That same year, Houston also became the county seat of Harrisburg County, which
was renamed Harris County in 1839.
By 1860 Houston began to emerge as a commercial and railroad hub for the export
of cotton.
Railroad spurs from the Texas inland converged in Houston, where they met rail
lines to the ports of Galveston and Beaumont.
After the Civil War, Houston businessmen initiated efforts to widen the city's
extensive system of bayous so the city could accept more commerce between downtown
and the nearby Port of Galveston.
After several privately-financed dredging projects in the 1860's and 1870's, the
United States government took over the Houston Ship Channel project in 1881.
By 1914, the Ship Channel was dredged to give Houston a deep-water port, replacing
Galveston's port which was destroyed in the Great Hurricane of 1900.
Today, Houston's energy industry is a world powerhouse, but biomedical research,
aeronautics and the ship channel are also large parts of the city's industrial
base. |
The Houston metro area comprises
the largest petrochemical manufacturing area in the world, including for synthetic
rubber, insecticides and fertilizers.
The area is also the world's leading center for building oilfield equipment.
Much of Houston's success as a petrochemical complex is due to its man-made ship
channel, the Port of Houston, which is one of the busiest ports in the United
States and second in the world in foreign tonnage.
ZIP code for Houston TX 77002,
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