# Articles on the History of the Galveston Jetties



## daparson (Dec 4, 2004)

There was another post that started with the history and purpose of the Texas City Dike. Rather than hi-jack the thread, I thought it best to repost with this one.

Here are some articles I found - very interesting reading.

Here is a link to an article from the New York Times article dated: February 9th, 1890

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9501E0D7143BE533A2575AC0A9649C94619ED7CF&oref=slogin

Here is another article: 

 The North Jetty, at the southwestern end of the peninsula, is one of twin restraining walls built into the Gulf of Mexico to provide a deepwater channel to Galveston. The South Jetty extends into the Gulf from Galveston Island. Work on the jetties began as a construction experiment in 1874, and the major portion was completed only after Congress appropriated funds for the work in 1890. Completion of the system in 1898 made Galveston a deep-sea port for world commerce. The jetties now protect shipping to various cities along the Houston Ship Channel, and are used as fishing spots by many sportsmen.

The jetty protects the entrance to the Galveston/Houston Ship Channel. The North Jetty Road, 1.7 miles from the Ferry Landing, is unmarked except for a large sign on the inland side of the highway. The road dead-ends into the North Jetty. The jetty was built of huge granite blocks in the 1890's by the Army Corp of Engineers. Without the jetties, large ships would not be able to travel the channel as the channel would silt over and boats with more than a 12 foot draft would be unable to navigate through the area.

The North Jetty extends five miles into the Gulf. People love to go crabbing there. For a remarkable experience the visitor may walk two miles out on the jetty. He will encounter countless fishermen and possibly even a hermit crab crossing the walk with his 'house' on his back.

Source: http://www.bolivarchamber.org/PortBolivar.aspx



Here is another great article from Texas Park and Wildlife:

*Fishing on the Rocks*

*http://www.tpwmagazine.com/archive/2005/mar/ed_1/*

It's not just what you catch, but what you might encounter, that makes Texas jetty fishing such an incredible experience.

By Larry Bozka

In just the short time we've been here, the waves of the Galveston ship channel have doubled in size. The breakers are chest-high now, charging past the boat like determined soldiers only to fall headfirst into the rose-colored rocks of the North Galveston Jetty.

An eye-burning mist nervously swirls in the rising southerly wind. Water crashes onto granite, a rhythmic but lulling monotone. We might as well be riding a 21-foot-long bobber. Yet, we wait, confident that the redfish will eventually come our way.

Waiting is a trademark of ship-channel fishing. It allows an angler plenty of time to think, and more than enough to remember. To this day, some 20 years later, I can still smell the old man's cigar smoke. My father, with no disrespect, called him "Old Man Hall."

World War II was unmade history when he first learned how to fish the Galveston jetties. He had his own way of finding the hot spots, triangulating landmarks and constantly scanning the rocks for the distinctive etchings he called "the stripes."

Actually, they were blasting marks. Permanently etched after drilling and detonation, the half-round creases remain today, though layers of algae can make them difficult to see.

To workers who labored in Hill Country quarries at the turn of the 20th century, men who every day loaded Galveston-bound railcars with massive granite boulders, the stripes were merely mundane byproducts of dangerous and exhausting work.

To Old Man Hall, they were signposts.

I don't know who, if anyone, taught him the significance of the stripes, the way certain configurations advertise the jetties' best fishing holes. Perhaps he learned through trial and error. Or maybe he did like the old-school offshore skippers and meticulously probed the bottom with a heavy iron sash weight and a hundred-foot length of cotton rope.

A careful drop of the sounding weight could tell him a lot, the peculiar way it landed atop a rock at the jetty base, clanked against its barnacle-encrusted edges and plummeted into an obscure bottom break. Distinct thumps signaled hard mud. A hole like that literally "breaks" the current, attracting baitfish in droves.

It also sets the table for predators.

Finding such a place was, and still is, the mark of a seasoned jetty angler. Today we use synchronized GPS receivers and electronic depthfinders to pinpoint the same spots. A few hundred bucks worth of plastic, wire and silicon accomplishes in a couple of minutes what often used to take half an hour.

The old man's beloved stripes will always be there, reminding us of countless mornings spent riding the swells and catching untold numbers of fish from the churning and mostly unseen universe of the world's largest jetty system.

At 35,587 feet - more than 6 1/2 miles of meticulously stacked granite - the Galveston jetties are listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest jetties on the planet. At their bases they're roughly seven times wider than at their wave-washed peaks, a ratio that's typical of most major jetty systems.

The deeply dredged artery of the Galveston Ship Channel cuts a narrow swath between Bolivar and, on the east end of Galveston Island, the South Galveston Jetty. Fish, crustaceans and invertebrates regularly hitchhike the currents between Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

When I watch the ship channel on a changing tide, I sometimes think of the vacuum tube that whisks deposits to the teller at my bank's drive-through window. The effect is almost that pronounced.

The channel is a thoroughfare. We've caught it all here. Once, it even caught us.

It happened on the last trip to the jetties my brothers and I made with our dad before he died.

It was a remarkable coincidence that a docile but frighteningly powerful creature center-punched our anchor line so precisely. A few feet to one side or the other and we'd have never known it was there.

Even now, it hardly seems possible.

When the boat began drifting, Dad assigned me anchor duty. I clambered to the bow and pulled on the rope.

To my amazement, it pulled back.

I'd be lying much worse than the average fisherman if I didn't admit I was scared. Something you can't see is bad enough; something you can't imagine is considerably worse.

The first surge of resistance dragged me to my knees. I'd struggled with the rope for perhaps 5 minutes, battered and baffled, when the distinct black shadow of a full-grown manta ray suddenly loomed below.

The triangular flukes of the anchor were perfectly wedged on the creature's head, halfway between its long and leathery cephalic lobes. Its eyes were the size of silver dollars, coal-black and expressionless.

Clueless travelers, a cluster of remoras rode atop its back. Our anchor chain trailed down the middle, where a wide and darkened marking gradually tapered into the thrashing whip of a long and spineless tail.

Against all probability, the unsuspecting ray had intercepted the rope. Propelled by the outgoing tide and its own unstoppable momentum, it trailed the line 7 fathoms deep before picking up the anchor and resuming its seaward journey.

My younger brother, Bob, joined me on the bow. Brother Bill manned the throttle while Dad looked on more amused than concerned.

Exactly how remains a mystery, but we eventually freed the anchor from the manta ray's back and speechlessly watched as a lumbering beast with a wingspread half the length of our hull sank unharmed and then disappeared altogether into the dark green waters of the ship channel.

In seconds, it was gone.

It was September 14, 1986. Manta rays commonly live 18 to 20 years, so our giant friend may well be alive today. I'd gladly give my best boat rod to know.

In the galaxy of life that flanks Texas jetty systems, the food chain is the limit. That fact, the element of the unknown and completely unexpected, is at the core of jetty fishing's appeal.

You may be fishing for common fare like speckled trout, redfish or drum. What you catch can be another matter. Jetties are smorgasbords with sometimes-exotic leanings.

Cases in point: One of Texas' rarest of sport fishes, the snook, frequents the jetties at Port Mansfield and Brownsville. Farther north, at Port Aransas, the local jetties host an early-summer influx of king mackerel. Tackle-busting kings, tarpon, cobia and even the occasional juvenile snapper sometimes surprise jetty anglers at Port O'Connor, Freeport, Matagorda, Galveston and Sabine Pass.

Back in the 1930s, Galveston Jetty anglers regularly caught triple-digit grouper. Legendary Galveston fisherman Gus Pangarakis' 551-pound goliath grouper, caught June 29, 1937, remains a state record today. (Taking of the species is now prohibited.)

Despite their impenetrable appearance, jetties are surprisingly porous. The water remains in a constant state of flux, coursing freely through the granite curtain. With the flow comes and goes marine life of all imaginable sizes and species. It's a world where angelfish mingle with tiger sharks, and every cast can result in a broken line or mangled tackle.

Jetties exist for industry, preventing the silting-in of deep-dredged channels and sheltering shipping traffic. Their ancillary value to the sport-fishing community is inestimable.

Jetty boaters have an edge, due to mobility more than anything. Fishermen who walk the rocks, careful to avoid slipping and falling on grease-slick algae spots, nevertheless manage to consistently take quality catches.

Either way, sharp-edged jetty rocks can consume their own weight in terminal tackle. Heavy-test leaders help prevent cut-offs, but are sometimes impossible to break when weights become wedged in crevasses.

Rock-walkers generally use long fishing rods, accelerating their retrieves and raising rod tips high to lift terminal rigs over structure when bringing in their lines.

Boaters are again at an advantage here, as they make their retrieves away from the rocks. Short, heavy-action rods, stout levelwind reels and 30-pound-test line are all standard boat-fishing tools. It sometimes takes bottom fishermen a half-pound of lead to counter the current and hold baits in place.

It's ironic that rock-walkers usually try to cast their baits as far as possible at the same time that their boat-fishing counterparts are placing their offerings up against the granite. Most gamefish species, from pan-sized sheepshead to 40-pound redfish, tend to hold close to the structure.

For jetty fishermen, a moving tide is imperative. No other saltwater locale is more affected by the direction and intensity of the current than the waters near the rocks.

Old Man Hall taught us to fish the channel side on a falling tide and the beach side during the incoming flow. Feeding gamefish roam the shallows as the water rises. When the tide turns outbound, those same species move offshore to patrol the rocky ledges and pursue current-carried forage. There is, regardless, no absolute rule, and no real substitute for an educated eye and long-term experience in "reading" the water.

Dad and the old man would have loved this trip. It's classic jetty fishing all the way, one line-stretcher after another.

A single 27-inch redfish gobbles my buddy's bait and bolts just before the water gets too rough for comfort. He lands the fish, and we move. It takes only a few minutes to motor around the end of the North Jetty, select our spot, drop the anchor and get back to fishing.

A change of gear is in order.

In the next few hours we'll use light spinning tackle to catch Spanish mackerel from the washout between the rocks and the old concrete ship. It's relatively shallow here, the south-wind-sheltered "Gulf side" of the jetty, so we'll be protected from the channel's angry waters. The razor-toothed mackerel are suckers for gold spoons, and they fight for freedom with a drag-sizzling intensity all their own.

Before dark, three more 38-inch-class redfish will pick up our live-baited circle hooks and prove once again why, regardless of gender, big female reds are always called "bulls." The keeper-sized mackerel, all respectable 18-inch-class fish, will be filleted at the Galveston Yacht Basin cleaning table. The oversized reds are always carefully unhooked and released.

We'll find none of the trout we're after, but that's not unheard of. Specks are unpredictable at best, but the rocket-fast mackerel literally pick up the slack.

At the dock, we recall the fat-bellied gafftop catfish that ate a live baitfish, three vividly striped sheepshead caught on shrimp near the rocks, the acrobatic ladyfish that attacked my buddy's beat-up gold spoon, and of course, the inevitable Big One That Got Away.

Could have been a shark, we surmise, maybe a big blacktip. No, it must've been a bull shark; after all, blacktips jump. So do tarpon.

Jack crevalle? No, it didn't run near as fast as a jack.

A 50-pound black drum, perhaps?

My friend looks at me and grins.

"Maybe it was your old friend the manta ray."

I pause to tell him that's impossible, that there's absolutely no way. Then I rethink the response long enough to remember where we're fishing.

"Not impossible," I answer. "Not impossible at all."

*Playing it Safe on the Rocks*

Texas jetties can be every bit as dangerous as they are productive.

For anglers who walk the rocks, the risk is in the walking itself. The "littoral zone," submerged at high tide but exposed during ebbs, is a fertile growth zone for ice-slick algae.

Some rock-walkers wear shoes with steel cleats. Maybe it's because I don't have an ice skater's ankles, but I've never felt comfortable with them.

Rubber cleats provide good traction with less effort. But for overall control and ease, felt-soled stream-wading boots are virtually unbeatable.

In any case, walk slowly, with calculated steps. Rock-hopping is extremely risky. Furthermore, though few jetty walkers do so, it's advisable to wear a life jacket.

Experienced boaters always remember the cardinal rule of anchoring near jetties and rock groins. Never pull the anchor free without first starting the boat engine. Once the anchor is loose, an unpowered boat is completely at the mercy of the wind and current.

The best-made hull on the market won't last a minute if blown or washed into jetty rocks. Worse yet, boaters who end up in the water are savagely beaten and lacerated by the lethal mix of waves, granite and barnacles.

I've seen it happen, and it's ugly. By the time nearby boaters (assuming there are any) can render assistance, victims almost invariably are seriously injured.

Use at least 3 feet of anchor rope for every foot of water depth. Conventional Danforth-style anchors with triangular flukes are very effective in hard-packed channel mud. Affix around 6 feet of chain to the anchor shaft; then tie on the rope. The chain not only resists rocks and debris; it also helps the flukes, as veteran boaters put it, "get a bite" on the bottom.

When anchoring in the rocks, with the wind blowing away from the jetty, grappling-hook-style anchors with bendable prongs are indispensable. Do-it-yourself welders sometimes make their own, but home-built steel versions tend to be heavy and unyielding.

The commercially produced "Mighty Mite" anchor is an all-purpose design that's especially suited to jetty fishing applications. Boaters who anchor with the Mighty Mite need only tie off on the bow cleat and, when leaving a spot, slowly throttle the engine in reverse to bend the aluminum prongs until they break free of the granite.

Once retrieved, a little body weight on the semi-straightened aluminum prongs bends them back into an effective, rock-grabbing curl.


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## 007 (Mar 11, 2008)

Great post!!!!


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## Hotrod (Oct 11, 2006)

Great info. There is my answer on the other thread of the big Grouper caught. Another question, what is the purpose of the Boat Cut? Were they catering to fisherman in boats?


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## daparson (Dec 4, 2004)

Another ancient article in the New York time upon the completion of the Jetties - dated - July 30, 1893 - Click Here



Hotrod said:


> Great info. There is my answer on the other thread of the big Grouper caught. Another question, what is the purpose of the Boat Cut? Were they catering to fisherman in boats?


This is from an article published in the Galveston Daily News:
http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=dd1aa3d01cc3b698c8545f57966c90b3

By Joe Kent 
Correspondent Published January 17, 2008

We have received a good number of replies to the Reel Report's request for information on the history of the North Jetty boat cut. The information I received varied on the actual date of the cut and circumstances surrounding the project.

There was, however, a consensus on certain facts, including that the timetable for its construction was about 1960.

Several readers cited the fact that the boat cut was opened as a safety factor. For years, there had been many small boats that capsized near the end of the North Jetty as they tried to round it, either pursuing fishing spots on the Gulf side or in the process of attempting to return to a launching site on Galveston Island.

At the time, the Light House, close to the end of the South Jetty, was manned, and the attendant would spot boats in distress across the channel, toward the North Jetty, and would call the Coast Guard to the rescue. Unfortunately, not all of the victims were lucky enough to survive the ordeal.

One of the major issues surrounding approval of the cut was its effect on silt pouring into the ship channel. You may recall from a Reel Report earlier this week that the jetties were built to protect a deep channel into Galveston Bay. The width of the opening was the big issue and apparently it was resolved, as the cut has been serving boaters for almost 50 years.

One of the responders was S.L. Bertling of La Marque, who is a retired engineer from the Corps of Engineers and was responsible for that area during his tenure in Galveston. Bertling added a lot of facts to the history of the North Jetty, mainly during more recent times, and I plan to visit with him soon and find out more about the North Jetty's storied past. Yes, I will pass on what I learn from that gentleman.


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## daparson (Dec 4, 2004)

*More Amazing Information*

Not to exhaust the subject matter - but I found a paper written about 20 years ago on the history of the North and South Jetty. It is technical in places - and I do not know what many of the numeric sta references are (hopefully someone smart on 2 cool will know) - but I found it incredibly fascinating. Also - there were some schematic drawings of how the Jetties were to be built.

This is a long article - hope you enjoy the read:

*Construction and Rehabilitation History of the **Galveston** Jetties*

*Costal Hydraulics Laboratory Fact Sheet*

*Galveston* *Harbor** Jetty, **Galveston* *Texas*

*www.tpub.com*

*Tech Report 9*



*1874-1879 *

The first attempt at constructing jetties was begun by placing cement covered gabions over distances of 9,700 and 2,200 ft. on the north (Bolivar Point jetty) and south (Fort Point jetty) sides of the inlet, respectively. An additional 500 ft of north jetty was constructed of timber piling at its landward end. The gabions were 6 ft high and wide, from 6 to 12 ft long, and filled with dredged sand once positioned. The jetties were submerged, extending no higher with the majority from 5 to 6 ft below than mean low water (mlw). The gabionades were unsuccessful in either securing a deeper navigable channel or in accumulating sediments in their immediate areas. Various geometric arrangements of gabion placement were tried but proved unsuccessful. The gabions tended to settle and move laterally due to tidal and wave-induced water motions and related movements of bottom sediments. This method of construction was used due to lack of available stone and an inability to transport stone to the inlet.



*1880-1885*

A second attempt at a south jetty consisted of placing multiple layers of log and brush (fascine) mattress, each layer ballasted with stone riprap. A total of 22,550 lin ft. was constructed with as many as four layers placed. The majority of the jetty was submerged with only its landward end above mlt. The mats were typically 1.5 ft and 30 to 120 wide at the base with narrower mats (15 to thick and 60 ft wide) placed in the remaining layers. Approximate y 400,000 sq yd of mattress and 9,000 tons of stone (roughly 50 16/ft2 were placed at a total cost of $968,000. By 1885, consolidation of the mattresses, settlement due to scour, and teredo damage had led to general deterioration and an average subsidence of almost 6 ft.



*1887 - 1898*

Rubble-mound jetties were constructed and completed to lengths of 25,600 and 34,800 ft. on the north and south sides, respectively. The south jetty was built during 1887-1893 and the north jetty was built during 1892-1898. The jetties were placed along the lignments of the earlier jetty attempts (the south jetty rubble mound being placed on top of the remains of the fascine mat jetty (from to sta 84+64 to sta 310+14) converging in the offshore direction to a distance of 7,000 ft. The jetties were built to +5ft mlt, a typical crown width of 12ft ( but as large as 20 ft at the seaward end of the south jetty) and as steep as practicable side slopes (typically 1v:1H and up to 1V:1.5H at the seared ends). The majority of the jetties were constructed using sandstone riprap varying in size from 20 lb to 3 tons. Granite blocks, varying in size from 0.75 ton to 1 tons and more, were used as the cover layer on the north jetty and seaward 15,000 ft of the south jetty. A portion of the south jetty core from sta 95+64 to sta 133+24 consisted of clay materials, but this type of construction was abandoned due to increasingly difficult methods of placement as the jetty advanced into deeper water. The general method of construction involved extending an apron of large (outside edges) and small sandstone riprap followed by a core of small sandstone riprap up to mlt, placing the granite blocks on the core side slopes, and then placing the remaining core stone and completing the cover layer. Most of the jetty construction was in water depths of less than -12 ft mlt, with the other few thousand feet of each jetty in deeper water. The jetties' seaward ends terminated at about the -27 ft mlt contour. The north and south jetty were completed using approximately 1,117,000 and 807,000 tons of stone at total costs (adjusted to price index) of $3,484,000 and $2,567,000, respectively.


*1902-1909*

Following the hurricane of September 1900, repairs were made to the jetties. During 1907-1909 the south jetty was extended from sta 348+00 to sta 356+00. Nearly all of the south jetty repairs were located at its landward end between 6+00 and 143+63 and its seaward end between sta 220+00 and sta 348+00. Granite blocks weighing 5 to 7 tons were placed on the landward section and large (8- to 10-ton) and small (less than 8-ton) granite riprap were used on the seaward section. The south jetty extensions was built up to +5 ft mlt with a maximum top width of 20ft and 1V:1.5H side slopes. The core stone consisted of pieces less than tons in weight placed on a 4 foot thick apron of 20- to 120-lb stone. The cover layer stone placed below and above -15 ft mlt averaged 6 (minimum of 3) and 10 tons, respectively. The south jetty repairs and extension required 128,400 and 77,700 tons of stone placed at total costs of $387,000 (estimate) and $284,000, respectively. In 1908, a concrete cap was placed on the south jetty between sta 144+00 and sta 200+00 using 1,680 cu yd of concrete and 2,409 tons of chinking stone at a cost of $48,600. The majority of the north jetty repairs were completed during 1903-1905 with 105,000 tons of 10- to 12-ton stone placed between sta 9+00 and sta 255+00. During 1907-1909 minor north jetty repairs were made between sta 80+00 and sta 285+00 using 11,600 tons of stone. Total cost of the north jetty repairs was $450,000.



*1909-1915*

Minor repairs were made to the south jetty following the storm of July 1909 which damaged sections at its landward (sta 0+00 to sta 144+00 and seaward (sta 300+00 to sta 346+00) end. A total of 22,500 tons of stone was placed, and several thousand tons of displaced cover stone were reset. Total repair cost was $131,000.



*1915*

A hurricane during August caused some damage to the jetties, but no subsequent work was undertaken. The north jetty received the most damage with numerous gaps (exposed core) at its landward end, from sta 10+00 to sta 18+00, and seaward of s t a 141+00. The south jetty needed repairs seaward of 279+00. Estimated stone quantities needed to repair the north and south jetties were 46,000 (reset 38,000) and 4,200 ( reset 1,000) tons respectfully.



*1925-1927*

During 1925-1926, the full length of the north jetty was repaired using 44,000 tons of stone at a cost of $305,000. The seaward end of the south jetty between sta 293+00 and sta 354+00 was repaired in 1927. Cost for placing 5,200 tons of stone was $47,600. A total of 430 tons of cover stone was placed on the south jetty.



*1933-1935*

An asphaltic concrete cap was placed on portions of both jetties and a concrete cap was placed between sta 0+00 and sta 20+00 at the noth jetty's landward end. The majority of the asphaltic cap was placed on two sections of the south jetty, near the existing shoreline from ata 196+55 to sta 230+59 and near the outer end from sta345+08 to sta 347+98. The north jetty was capped at two existing low points or gaps from sta 144+15 to sta 145+75 and sta 177+00 to sta 178_00. Prior to the capseal course of asphaltic concrete was placed in the void spaces. The cap had a crown elevation of +4.7 ft, a crown width of 8ft and 1V:1H sideslopes. The capping cost was $135,000 and used 12,280 tons of asphalt. The north jetty concrete cap was placed to and elevation of +6.5 ft mlt, an 8ft crown width and vertical side. Stone totaling 9,200 tons also was placed on the north jetty inner and bringing the total cost to $82,700.



*1940-1942*

Repairs were made to the north jetty with 15 to 150 lb core stone and 6 to 10 ton cover stone placed between sta 135+00 and sta 253+00 near seaward end. A total of 22,300 tons of stone (87% cover) was placed and 60 coverstones set. A concrete cap was placed on the south jetty from sta 230+59 and sta 251+12. The rectangular cap was 8ft wide and had a crest evaluation of +6ft mlt. The cap required 800 tons of chinking riprap and 3,163 yards of concrete. The seaward section of the south jetty asphalt cap was destroyed during heave action in 1941. About 7,000 tons of cover stone was placed at this section and other damaged areas. Total coast of the capping and armor stong repairs was $65,300 and $264,400 respectively.



*1944*

The shore end of the north jetty was repaired using 610 tons of core stone for a total cost of $5,700.



*1962-1966*

The north jetty was rehabilitated from sta 8+00 to sta 229+00 and the south jetty was rehabilitated from sta 251+13 to sta 354+00. Stone was placed on the gulf side slope and crown of each jetty.

The outer 200 ft on each jetty was built as a head section with stone placed over the entire cross section. The design geometry was positioned 4 ft gulf ward of the existing jetty center line with a top elevation of +5ft mlt, a 3-stone-wide crown, and sideslopes of 1V:2.25H and 1V:3H on trunk and head sections, respectively. The sections were built upon a 2- to 3-ft-thick blanket of 0.5-in. to 200-lb stone. The blanket extended beyond the cover layer toe distances of 10 and 50 ft for truth and head sections, respectively. Core stone, typically 200 to 2,000 lb in size, then were placed providing the necessary side slope. One layer of cover stone was placed, except on the head sections, which used a double layer. Cover stone varied from a maximum of 1 to 1 tons at the heads to minimums of 2 and 6 tons at the north and south jetty landward ends, respectively. To decrease jetty permeability, 0.5- to 4-in. filler stone was placed in the crown area beneath the cover layer. Prior to the repairs, the jetties were in a general state of deterioration with much of the south jetty and several spots of the north jetty at or below +3ft mlt. In many cases core stone was exposed, or cover layer stone was not tightly interlocked. Due to these conditions and use of large core stone during original construction, the jetties were considered too pervious to wave, tide, and sediment motions. Scour on the channel side of the north jetty was evident from sta 50+00 to sta 190+00 where the authorized 30-ft-deep channel made its closest approach to either jetty. Along this section water depths were typically 40 ft or greater within 10 ft of the jetty center line, while on the gulf side the typical water depth was 10 ft. This was a major reason for repairing the gulf side of the north jetty, since the quantity of stone required would be much smaller. The total costs for rehabilitation of the north and south jetties were $3,440,000and $2,564,500, respectively. Although data on complete stone quantities were not found, partial quantities and several similar construction or repair projects (with known stone quantities) built during this time frame yield an estimate of from 600,000 to 1,200,00 tons of stone placed.



*1986*

The jetties have received no maintenance or repairs since rehabilitation the 1960's and are considered to be in good condition. The present channel is authorized at 40- and 42-ft depths between inner and outer jetty sections, respectively.



http://www.tpub.com/content/coastalhydraulicslaboratoryfact/TechReport9/TechReport90021.htm


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## Hotrod (Oct 11, 2006)

Interesting info, thanks again.


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## SwampRat (Jul 30, 2004)

Maybe a good time to bump an ancient thread...


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## Trouthappy (Jun 12, 2008)

Years ago I climbed the rusty tower near the safety boat cut on the north jetty, to take photos. 1985. The cut was built so you wouldn't have to run around the end of the jetty in storms and rough water. Not a bad spot to fish, either. A tagged red was caught there two summers ago.


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## yakin ag (Mar 6, 2007)

I searched for the referenced thread on the Texas City Dike with no luck, anyone have a link?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## monkeyman1 (Dec 30, 2007)

Very interesting.


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## SD Hawkins (Jan 2, 2008)

Caught so many fish there in that cut, used to set lights up. Caught more fish at S Jetty than anywhere. metal golf spikes!!


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