The Ocean Comes To a City

Southland Times, Issue 22993, 12 September 1936, Page 21 (Supplement)

The Ocean Comes To a City

In the city of Brownsville, in Texas, U.SA.., there is great excitement, for Brownsville has become very important Although it is 17 miles inland from tire Gulf of Mexico, it has been made an ocean port. They couldn’t take Brownsville to the ocean, so they brought the ocean to Brownsville by digging a t 17-mile channel from the city to Port Isabel, on the Gulf. The 26foot depth of the channel will accommodate very large ships, and at Brownsville itself an artificial harbour, complete with jetties, has been made, bringing the world’s shipping to the city’s back door. An interesting history' lies behind this great engineering feat. Many years ago Brownsville, then on the famous Rio Grande, enjoyed a booming trade. Then the river changed its course, and silt choked up the channel, with the result that the city’s rich trade withered away. Now an entirely new cross-country waterway, which the river can never affect, has been made to bring the city back into the main stream of the world’s trade, and great things are expected of it. The new port will serve the rich Rio Grande valley and northern Mexico, and the enthusiastic townspeople look forward to a revival of flje trade boom. Giving access to the sea to a wide expanse of rich fruitgrowing, cattle and dairying country, the port has already set itself up as a rival of China in the egg trade, and expects to take some of the valuable fruit and vegetable business enjoyed by California and Florida. It has also started a roaring trade with New York in “hotmeat! What particular appeal the “hot dog” made from Texan raw material has that other “hot dogs” do not possess we don’t know, but the fact remains that already hundreds of tons of this delectable commodity are now being shipped from Brownsville to New York.

The city' has a picturesque history, going back to the old days of the Spanish Main, and it boasts that it has been under no fewer than seven flags. First came the “conquistadores of Spain. At various times French and English adventurers controlled the territory. The fierce tribes of Indians over-ran it to reclaim their lost lands; Austrians and French, under the Emperor Maximilian, ruled for a while, and Mexicans and soldiers of the Texan Republic clashed here, and the last battle of the American Civil War was fought near by.

Millon’s Cottage.

The trustees of the poet John Milton’s cottage at Chaifort St. Giles, Buckinghamshire, recently issued an appeal for £l2OO to enable them to purchase an adjoining piece of land threatened by builders. They now announce that Lord Wakefield has expressed his desire to purchase this land and present it to the trustees as a means of associating with Milton’s cottage the ward of Bread Street, City of London, of which he is aiderman and in which John Mil ton was boi’n.