Galveston County, Texas

The Texas City Dike is a levee located in Texas City, Texas, United States that projects nearly 5 miles (8.0 km) south-east into the mouth of Galveston Bay. It is flanked by the north-eastern tip of Galveston Island and the south-western tip of the Bolivar Peninsula. The dike, one of the area's most beloved and enduring landmarks, was originally designed to reduce the impact of sediment accumulation along the lower Bay.The Bay itself connects the Houston Ship Channel, one of the nation's most important commercial waterways, and the Port of Houston with the Gulf of Mexico 35 nautical miles (65 km) distant. However, as Texas City expanded from its industrial roots to become a thriving residential community, the dike's purpose changed, and it became the city's best hope against a catastrophic incursion of water surging westward into the low-lying community from a hurricane landfall in the Bay. It was hoped that the dike, Texas City's primary defense against potential encroachment of water from Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, would lessen or even entirely deflect substantial damage to the city from such a potentially cataclysmic event. The Texas City Dike juts out into Galveston Bay on the easternmost end of Texas City. The dike is parallel to and north of the 50-foot deep, 600-foot wide Texas City Channel, which allows shipping traffic to access the Port of Texas City. The dike's structure consists of a 28,200-foot-long (approximately 5.34 miles) pile dike paired with a rubble-mound dike that runs along the south edge of the pile dike (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 2007). The Texas City Dike was built to protect the Texas City Channel from cross currents and excessive silting, although the channel must still be dredged frequently to prevent shoaling in the waterway.

The 1947 Texas City disaster was an industrial accident that occurred on April 16, 1947, in the port of Texas City, Texas, United States, located in Galveston Bay. It was the deadliest industrial accident in U.S. history and one of history's largest non-nuclear explosions. The explosion was triggered by a mid-morning fire on board the French-registered vessel SS Grandcamp (docked at port), which detonated her cargo of about 2,300 tons (about 2,100 metric tons) of ammonium nitrate. This started a chain reaction of fires and explosions aboard other ships and in nearby oil-storage facilities, ultimately killing at least 581 people, including all but one member of Texas City's volunteer fire department.: 100 The disaster drew the first class action lawsuit against the United States government, on behalf of 8,485 plaintiffs, under the 1946 Federal Tort Claims Act.

The Port of Texas City is a major deepwater port in Texas City, Texas at Galveston Bay, United States. Its location on the bay, which is used by the Port of Houston and the Port of Galveston, puts Texas City in the heart of one of the world's most important shipping hubs. As of 2008 the Port of Texas City was the 14th leading port in the United States by total tons of trade and as of 2007 it was the 87th leading port in the world, according to the American Association of Port Authorities.

Texas City High School (TCHS) is a public high school in Texas City, Texas, in the Greater Houston area. It is one of two high schools in the Texas City Independent School District (TCISD), the other being La Marque High School. The main school building for Texas City High opened in 1952. Another building for Texas City High opened in 1957, and the previous one became Blocker Junior High School.As of September 2021, Texas City High School had 1,791 students.

Pelican Island is an island located in Galveston County, Texas. It is part of the city of Galveston and is linked to Galveston Island by the Pelican Island causeway. The island is home to the Texas A&M University at Galveston as well as two museum ships—the destroyer escort USS Stewart (DE-238) and the submarine USS Cavalla (SS-244)—and Seawolf Park. Seawolf Parkway is the only street that runs across the island. In 1965, Galveston businessman George Mitchell purchased a large parcel of land on Pelican Island and donated some of it for the permanent home of Texas A&M University at Galveston. The Intracoastal Waterway borders it to the north, separating Pelican Island from another island.

Galveston Bay Refinery, also known as Marathon Texas City Refinery, is an oil refinery operated by Marathon Petroleum within the Texas City, Texas Industrial Complex on the edge of Galveston Bay. With a capacity 593,000 barrels per day, it was the second-largest petroleum refinery in Texas and third-largest in the United States circa 2008, and the eighth largest refinery in the world circa 2018.The refinery was established 1931 as Republic Oil refinery. In 2018 it merged with Marathon's other refinery in Texas City into a single refining complex.In 2021, it was the greatest emitter of the carcinogen benzene into the United States environment, among all refineries in the country.

Texas City is a city in Galveston County in the U.S. state of Texas. Located on the southwest shoreline of Galveston Bay, Texas City is a busy deepwater port on Texas's Gulf Coast, as well as a petroleum-refining and petrochemical-manufacturing center. The population was 51,898 at the 2020 census, making it the third-largest city in Galveston County, behind League City and Galveston. It is a part of the Houston metropolitan area. The city is notable as the site of a major explosion in 1947 that demolished the port and much of the city.

Robinson Stadium is a baseball stadium located in Texas City, Texas. The stadium seats 1,800 people. It was home to the Bay Area Toros of the Continental Baseball League as well as the Texas City High School baseball team.

Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG) is an ocean-oriented branch campus of Texas A&M University offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Students enrolled at Texas A&M University at Galveston, known affectionately as 'Sea Aggies', share the benefits of students attending Texas A&M University (TAMU) campus in College Station. TAMUG is located on Pelican Island, offering benefits for its maritime focused majors. The campus's academic programs are ocean-focused. It is the home of the Texas A&M Maritime Academy and has a Navy-option-only NROTC unit on campus. (Marine Corps-option NROTC cadets must attend the main campus in College Station.)

The Texas City refinery explosion occurred on March 23, 2005, when a flammable hydrocarbon vapor cloud ignited and violently exploded at the isomerization process unit of the BP oil refinery in Texas City, Texas, killing 15 workers, injuring 180 others and severely damaging the refinery. All the fatalities were contractors working out of temporary buildings located close to the unit to support turnaround activities. Property loss was $200 million ($300 million in 2024). When including costs of repairs, deferred production, fines and settlements, the explosion is the world's costliest refinery accident. The direct cause of the accident was the ignition of a heavy hydrocarbon vapor cloud which emanated from raffinate liquids overflowing from the top of a blowdown stack. The source of ignition was probably a running vehicle engine. The release of liquid followed the automatic opening of a raffinate splitter column overpressure protection caused by overfilling. Subsequent investigation reports by BP, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB), and an independent blue-ribbon panel led by James Baker identified numerous technical and organizational failings at the refinery and within corporate BP.

SS Selma was an oil tanker built in 1919 by F.F. Ley and Company, Mobile, Alabama. President Woodrow Wilson approved the construction of 24 concrete vessels of which only 12 were actually completed. SS Selma is the only permanent, and prominent, wreck along the Houston Ship Channel. It lies approximately one mile north of Galveston Island.

Moses Lake is a lake located near Texas City, Texas, US, in the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown metropolitan area. It is fed by Moses Bayou and drains into Galveston Bay.