Galveston

Galveston is a barrier-island city on the Gulf Coast of Texas, about 50 miles southeast of Houston, long one of the most important ports in the state. In the 19th century it was Texas's largest city and busiest harbor, its Victorian "Strand" district a hub of cotton trade and immigration - the "Ellis Island of the West."

In 1900 a hurricane drove a storm surge across the low, flat island and killed an estimated 6,000-12,000 people, still the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. The survivors raised the entire city's grade and built a seawall, but the port's primacy passed to the dredged, inland Houston Ship Channel. Today Galveston blends a working port, historic architecture, and Gulf beaches.