Texas Railroad History - Towers 96, 97 and 98 -
the Galveston Island Causeway
Three Interlockers
Controlling the Galveston Island Causeway and Gulf Intra-Coastal Waterway
Historic Photos, Galveston Causeway Towers, John W. Barriger III National
Railroad Library
Above: Railroad executive John
W. Barriger III was northbound off of Galveston Island when he snapped this
photo from the back of his private railcar, most likely in the mid
1930s. His photographic impulse was spurred by spotting Tower 96, the
"Island" side interlocking tower, as he sped past it. Barriger is looking
southeast towards the island as his train has just left dry land and ventured
onto the Galveston Island Causeway for the trip to the mainland. This photo is
hand-marked "MKT 142" (presumably by Barriger), consistent with the fact that
Barriger's train is on the Galveston, Houston & Henderson (GH&H) tracks which
were owned by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad. The electrified
catenary of the interurban, the Galveston - Houston Electric (GHE) Railway, extends
over the two tracks farthest to the right, a main track and a passing track. The
tracks to Barriger's immediate right belong to Santa Fe.
Below: Having just passed over the railroad drawbridge in the center of the
causeway, Barriger's next photo target is Tower 97, the interlocking tower to
the right of the Welcome sign. This photo is hand-marked "ATSF 245", associating
it with Barriger's collection of Santa Fe photos. But all of the other photos in
that series before and after this one were taken in Kansas, and for this photo,
Barriger is clearly on the GH&H tracks. The marking appears to be a mistake, and
there's a strong likelihood that this photo was actually "next" after the one
above, i.e. taken a mile farther up the causeway on the same
trip. Tower 97 controlled the raising and
lowering of the drawbridge, de-conflicting railroad and maritime
traffic. Barriger's view is down the causeway toward Galveston Island. The
vehicle roadway is behind the second barrier wall to the right. The track to
Barriger's immediate right is the Santa Fe track, and the track beside that one
is the GHE. Although not readily apparent from this photo, the catenary for the
GHE track is directly above it. Designing the catenary to allow the drawbridge
to be raised no doubt presented an interesting engineering problem since the
wiring would need to retain electrical contact with the opposite side of the
bridge at all times.
Below: Heading
toward Galveston Island, obviously on a
different trip, Barriger snapped a photo as his private car sped past Tower 98,
the "mainland side" tower at Virginia Point. The view is to the northwest and
the track to Barriger's left is the GHE with
overhead electrification. The vehicle roadway is farther left. Barriger's train
is on the Santa Fe tracks, which just crossed the GHE at the tower. The tracks
to the right are shared by the GH&H and Southern Pacific's Texas & New Orleans
Railroad.
Galveston Island was a major port and commercial center in 19th century Texas,
so it is not surprising that railroads sought to provide service to the island.
The first railroad bridge was completed in 1860, owned by the Galveston, Houston
& Henderson (GH&H) Railroad. The GH&H bridge was two miles long,
departing the mainland at Virginia Point. After multiple corporate restructurings
over 30 years, the GH&H
became owned by the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (MKT) Railroad under the control of
rail baron Jay Gould. As the MKT did not have tracks as far south as Houston,
Gould leased the GH&H to another railroad he controlled, the International -
Great Northern (I-GN), in 1883. Gould eventually lost control of the MKT. When
MKT tracks reached Houston in the 1890s, they demanded the return of their leased property
but I-GN refused. After lengthy litigation, MKT regained full possession of the
GH&H but I-GN gained permanent trackage rights onto the island.
By 1873,
it had become apparent to Galveston civic and commercial leaders that they
needed a second railroad onto the island, one that did not pass through Houston.
For a variety of reasons
(including Houston health officials occasionally declaring a "yellow fever
quarantine" against Galveston Island), freight bound for Galveston did not
always reach Galveston, sometimes being off-loaded in Houston instead. To be
fair, Houston leaders were attempting to turn Buffalo Bayou into an
ocean-navigable channel to the Gulf of Mexico in part to overcome restrictive
policies practiced by the Galveston Wharf Company that were detrimental to
Houston's interests. Galveston's desire to have a railroad onto the island that
bypassed Houston led to the founding of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe (GC&SF)
Railway. With a new bridge over Galveston Bay, construction reached
Arcola in 1877 and Richmond in 1879. By 1887, the
GC&SF had become part of the vast Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe rail network,
strengthening Galveston as a major commercial port.
In the 1880s,
Southern Pacific (SP) had begun to expand aggressively into Texas as their line
from California to Houston was completed, in part through arrangements with (and
a financial interest in) the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio (GH&SA) Railway.
The GH&SA ran west from Harrisburg to
San Antonio and beyond, and they were soon acquired
by SP. What SP did not have was a bridge onto
Galveston Island. The third rail bridge onto the island was not built until
1896, by the Galveston, La Porte and Houston Railway. GH&SA made arrangements to
access the new bridge, but this didn't last long -- the bridge was wiped out by
the massive hurricane of 1900. Only the GC&SF bridge survived that storm and it proved to be a critical
asset in the rebuilding of Galveston.
In 1912, a 2-mile reinforced
concrete
causeway opened between the island and Virginia Point providing access for railroads, highway vehicles
and an electrified interurban, the Galveston - Houston Electric (GHE) Railway.
This original causeway has remained in use for rail traffic, but portions of it
were substantially rebuilt after the hurricane of 1915, with the work mostly
complete by 1922. Since the causeway tracks were shared by several
railroad companies, interlocking towers had to be located at each end
of the causeway to manage access to the bridge. And because the causeway was not
significantly elevated above the surface of the waterway, a drawbridge section
was incorporated into the causeway to enable maritime traffic to pass.
This required an additional interlocker on the bridge to manage the controls and
approach signals, and to communicate with maritime traffic requesting the bridge
be raised. The three towers were numbered (east to west) 96, 97 and 98 by the
Railroad Commission of Texas (RCT). According to RCT Annual Reports, all three officially
controlled junctions of the same four railroads: the GH&H, the GC&SF, the
GH&SA, and the "Interurban" (the GHE). The "Interurban" was
dropped from the list beginning with the 1924 RCT Annual Report and there was a
corresponding decrease in the number of functions listed for each of the
interlockers. Since the GHE remained in service
until 1936, the reason for this change is unclear.
Above: Vol. 21 (1928) of
Railway Signaling and Communications
carried an article about the consolidation of the Tower 96, 97 and 98
interlockers into a single control system. The article explains that the work
was done under the supervision of the GC&SF during a period commencing January,
1927 when they were responsible for operating and maintaining the interlockers.
The article noted that these responsibilities rotated among the participating
railroads every five years. As part of its assessment of the feasibility of
consolidation, Santa Fe had determined that on average, the causeway was seeing
50 steam and 45 electric train movements per day, and that a maximum of 75 steam
and 60 electric movements had been observed in a single day. The span of
interlocker control among the three towers included signals as far as 5.5 miles
apart. A technology breakthrough that allowed tower operators to control signals
and switches for trains they could not see was the incorporation of train
detector circuits. This led to the design of an illuminated track diagram (2
feet high by 23 feet long!) that showed precise locations of all trains over the
5.5 mile span of control. Choosing to base all of the interlocking plants at
Tower 97 minimized the number of wires that needed to be carried in a new
submarine cable under the channel. All three interlockers used electro-pneumatic
actions to move switches and signals, and this required compressed air. Towers
96 and 98 were left in place to house air compressors, relays and other
electronics. The consolidation reduced operating expenses by approximately
$14,000 per year. The article also explains that the existing Tower 97 structure
had to be enlarged to house all of the new equipment.
The railroads that
served Galveston were gradually acquired and merged into larger rail systems.
Union Pacific (UP) became the successor to the MKT and the I-GN, which shared
the GH&H tracks, and the GH&SA, which had been integrated into SP's system. The
Santa Fe tracks became the property of Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF). Much
of the GHE right-of-way from Houston to Virginia Point now hosts power lines.
Tower 96 (Island - Causeway)
RCT reports list the location of Tower 96 as "Island - Causeway". Island was actually the name of
a small community on the peninsula of land between Offatts Bayou and Galveston
Bay. Island had its own school and retained a separate identity until eventually
being consumed by growth of the city of Galveston. Tower 96 was built on the
peninsula at Island and was the first of the three interlockers authorized
for service. It was commissioned on September 6, 1912 with a 67-function electrical interlocker. The 1930 Annual Report lists Tower 96 as no
longer in service, having been "consolidated with No. 97", due to the
interlocking plant relocations discussed above.
At the time of its decommissioning, the number of interlocker functions had
dropped to 61, and the "Interurban" was no longer listed as one of the
interlocked railroads.
Despite losing the interlocker function, the Tower 96 structure remained
standing to house air compressors and other electronics for many decades. It was
eventually abandoned and remained derelict for many years. It has since been razed.
Historic Photos of Tower 96
Above: Two photos of the abandoned Tower 96 showing the north side (left) and northwest
corner (right) of the tower. Note the small phone shanty located behind
(south of) the tower.
(Photos from the Galveston Railroad Museum collection)
Tower 97 (Lift Bridge - Causeway)
Tower 97's location was listed in RCT reports as "Lift Bridge - Causeway",
authorized for operation on October 23, 1912 as a 34-function electrical
interlocker. It was the last of the three causeway interlockers to begin
service, located adjacent to the drawbridge span in the middle of the causeway.
It provided the safety system for the bridge by arbitrating access between the
railroads and maritime traffic. The original Tower 97 structure was replaced with a modern building to control the drawbridge, signal lights and
switches on both approaches. As discussed above, the Tower 96 and 98
interlockers were relocated to Tower 97 in 1928 which required expanding the
upper floor of the facility. The retirement of Tower 17
in Rosenberg in 2004 left Tower 97 as the last manned interlocking tower in Texas.
The original drawbridge was replaced in 1987 with a bascule bridge that
pivoted from the island side, not the mainland side as the original had
(...because, to widen the waterway, the causeway needed to be shortened from the
middle; this was much easier to accomplish by removing a portion of the causeway
on the island side since it did not have the existing bridge pivot assembly and
tower structures that sat on the mainland side.) In 2012, the 1987 bascule bridge was replaced by a much longer
vertical lift bridge to satisfy Coast Guard
Intra-Coastal Waterway safety requirements. Presumably, some
kind of interlocking system has been retained for rail operations over
the lift bridge, but whether it retains the "Tower 97" nomenclature has not been
determined. Stuart L. Schroeder reports...
"At the time of my retirement in November 2016, there was still an operator
at the Galveston lift bridge but the BNSF Galveston Subdivision train
dispatcher in Spring had a role in the operation of the bridge."
Photos of Tower 97
Above: This Library of
Congress photo was possibly taken at the
commissioning of Tower 97. With boats, rail cars and automobiles, something
special appears to be happening. Note that the upper floor of the Tower 97
building houses the tower structure and nothing else. The building was later
modified as discussed below. Also note that the counterweight of the drawbridge
is adjacent to the tower, which is on the mainland side of the waterway. This
changed when the drawbridge was replaced.
Below Left:
Don Harper took this photo that shows both Tower 97 structures: the original
(left) and the new one (right). The original building was modified so that the upper floor
occupied the full extent of the building. This was done as part of the 1928
consolidation of all three interlocking machines into Tower 97 so that Towers 96
and 98 were no longer manned. The new building was constructed when the
drawbridge was replaced by a larger bascule bridge in 1987. Like the prior
bridge, the counter-weight of the new bridge is adjacent to the tower, but both
are now on the island side of the waterway.
Below Right: Daniel Walford
took this close-up of the abandoned structure.
Above:
Galveston civic leaders wanted to make sure that visitors knew they were welcome
in Galveston. (Galveston Historical Foundation photo)
Message from Don Harper, 9/3/2002:
"The tower at the causeway bridge IS an interlocking tower.
I watched while signals and switches were aligned several times.
All pushbutton operation. I did learn that the present bridge
is scheduled to be replaced by a vertical lift bridge by 2007.
Not sure what the advantage of that move is, as it has to be expensive,
and the current bridge is only about 13 years old. The tower is noisy. There are at least 3 radios in there, one
BNSF, one UP, and one on channel 16 for boat traffic. The operator
was kept hopping much of the time I was there. Several vessels
passed through, the Gulfliner went through 3 times and a BNSF
outbound passed by. ...An interesting sideline: the tower operator records the names
of tow boats passing the tower, what their load is, and the direction
they are heading...at the request of the Coast Guard. If a
vessel is reported missing or sinking, the Coast Guard has a general frame
of reference as to where the vessel might be."
Message from Don Harper, 9/13/2002
"On page B8 of this morning's Galveston County Daily News is
an article entitled " Railroad causeway due for work."
The article says that the causeway, built in 1909, has a 110 foot
opening to allow passage of vessel traffic using the Gulf Intra-Coastal
Waterway. The plan is to widen the opening to 250 to 300 feet. Maybe that is why a new vertical lift bridge is being planned.
There must be some limit to the length of a bascule bridge after
which the bridge would buckle as it was in a near horizontal position
during lifting or dropping. The cost of this widening project is $33.3 million.
...Something I did not know - the County owns the bridge, but under
agreements between all interested parties, the railroads pay 80%
of maintenance costs of the draw bridge and 66% of the causeway
bridge."
1981 Barge Collision
In a Railspot post dated February
22, 2017, Rollin Bredenberg recounted this story...
"SP operated the bridge until the infamous incident in
1981 when the SP operator told a northbound tow of barges to proceed into the
old bascule structure. The tow boat captain was running in dense fog and asked
her if the bridge was open. She said "no, but I'll raise it up for you." Turns
out she had been doing a good bit of weed smoking that night, and instead of
raising the bridge she went downstairs to the rest room. When the captain saw
that the bridge was still down (10 min. after the initial radio conversation) he
immediately sounded his horn in short rapid bursts, at which point the 24 year
old SP operator ran as fast as she could away from the control house. The
inevitable collision compromised the barges causing the butadiene to bleed.
After the initial explosions the product burned for over a day. The bascule
span was useless scrap metal. The incident did not affect SP greatly except for sulphur trains that could not get onto the island. ATSF, on the other hand, was
severely impacted and incensed that they were separated from the island for IIRC
three weeks. ATSF asked that SP allow ATSF to take over control and maintenance
of the bridge. SP gladly agreed and that is why BNSF now controls the bridge.
There were no injuries resulting from this accident. The operator did not show
up for her formal investigation and her short railroad career ended that night."
Tower 98 (Virginia Point - Causeway)
Tower 98 was a 71-function electric-pneumatic interlocker located at Virginia
Point on the mainland end of the causeway. It was commissioned for operation on
October 14, 1912 and decommissioned in 1928 when its interlocking functions were
transferred to Tower 97. Virginia Point dates back to at least 1840 when a
community was organized at the site of a ferry operation. Virginia Point was
intended to become the founding site of Texas City, but that town was laid out
farther north after the hurricane of 1900. Virginia Point expanded as a result
of the completion of the new causeway in 1912, but the community was wiped out
again by a major hurricane in 1915. Some portions of the community were rebuilt, but
it remained underdeveloped and was annexed by Texas City in 1952. Despite
decommissioning in 1929, Tower 98 remained standing into the 1980s.
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Left:
Northwest corner of Tower 98 (Galveston Railroad Museum collection)
Right: Southwest
corner of Tower 98 (Tom Kline, 1978) |
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A highway bridge built onto the island in 1938 carried lanes in both
directions and incorporated a drawbridge. This allowed vehicular traffic to be
removed from the 1912 causeway. By the mid-1950s, the 1938 bridge was inadequate
for the higher traffic levels being experienced, so a new bridge was built that was high enough to not
require a drawbridge. Traffic was relocated to this new bridge in 1961 while the
old bridge was substantially modified to raise its height so that its drawbridge
could be eliminated. When it reopened in 1964, the two bridges were used to
carry traffic in opposite directions. In 2003, construction began on new bridges for Interstate 45 traffic to replace the older ones. The new
northbound bridge opened in 2005; the southbound bridge opened in 2008. This new
I-45 causeway was rededicated as the George and Cynthia Mitchell
Memorial Causeway in 2016.
Additional
Tower 97 and Causeway Photos by Don Harper (click to enlarge)
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| lift bridge counter-weight |
old tower (left) and new
tower (right) |
plant panel and bridge
controls |
interior view |
causeway, November 1957 |
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| Gulfliner northbound |
Gulfliner southbound past
old tower |
merging onto causeway (cab
view) |
lift bridge approach (cab
view) |
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Images from the Post Card Collection of
Bruce Blalock (click to enlarge)
Additional Photos of Tower 96 (click to enlarge)
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Bob Nicholson, Sept 1970 |
Carl Codney, undated |
Ralph Back, Nov. 14, 1971 |
east
(left) and north (right) sides (Galveston RR Museum collection) |
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Additional Photos of Tower 98 from the collection of the Galveston
Railroad Museum (click to enlarge)
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| east side |
southwest corner |
west side |
interior |
Additional Photos of Tower 98 from the Tom Kline collection (click to
enlarge)
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GC&SF/GH&H split |
west approach |
east approach |
north side |
Additional Photos of Tower 98 by Mark Nerren in 1980
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| west side |
northeast corner |
section house |
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Photos from the Steven M. Baron Collection
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| Interurban crossing lift
bridge |
Interurban viaduct |
Interurban on causeway |
Tower 98 at Virginia
Point after the Hurricane of 1915 |
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Google Earth Satellite Images of the Locations of Towers 98, 97 and 96
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| Virginia Point (Tower
98) |
2012 Lift Bridge |
"Island" (Tower 96) |
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