Louisiana-Texas (LA-TEX) Intercoastal Waterway, Port Isabel, Cameron County, TX

Significance: Originally envisioned by the United States Congress and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the early nineteenth century as a component of a nationwide system of navigable inland waterways, the La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway ultimately required more than seven decades of planning and development efforts to achieve completion. Beginning with congressional authorization in 1873 and finally constructed in 1949, the La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway has since provided reliable and safe navigation for all types of commercial, civilian and military vessels from the Mississippi River near New Orleans to Port Isabel, Texas near the Rio Grande. Today the former La-Tex Intracoastal Waterway, now part of the greater Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, continues to be a vital component of the Gulf Coast regional economy and is being recognized as one of the Corps of Engineers' and the nation's remarkable engineering feats of the twentieth century.
Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N521
Survey number: HAER TX-24