b'RailroadCompany.Ropesrailway promised to connect the Coastal Bend to Mexico, and on to Central and South America, but did not make it past the southern end of the city. The Panic of 1893 was an all-out economicdepressionthatrattledthe UnitedStates,largelybroughtabout by the exploding bubble of the railroad financesystem.PortRopesPasswas plagued with dredging equipment fail-ures and unforeseen complications, and by 1893 work on the project had halted. Eli Ropes left town, pledging to return withmoremoneybutheneverdid, and died five years later at the age of 53. The people of Ropesville changed the towns name to Tarpon, which be-came Port Aransas in 1911.The population of Corpus Christi doubled during the four years of the Ropes Boom, and despite the economic ups and downs of the turn of the 20th Century, total property value of the city grew from about $1 million to over $8 million, and bank deposits grew more than ten-fold. In 1913, Mayor Roy Miller led the effort to modernize Corpus Christi, developing a bay front wharf, hiring and outfitting a paid fire department, paving streets and building sewer systemsbut the development of a commercial seaport had not made it back on the agenda from the Eli Ropes days.The devastating 1919 Hurricane wiped out much of the Miller progress, and city leaders became determined to develop a port that would bring much needed commerce to the area. It was the port-World War I era and an American economic boom was just revving up. The 1920 Rivers and Harbors Act funded a 25-foot-deep, 200-foot-wide, channel from the Gulf of Mexico through Aransas Pass (the pass be-tween Mustang and St. Josephs Island, not the town), and to Halls Bayou south of Nueces Bay. A wooden bridge had been built over the bayou in the 1880s, but the new Port of Corpus Christi included a 121-foot draw bridge that raised on one sidethe Bascule Bridge.The top commodity that passed through the Port of Corpus Christi when it of-ficially opened in 1926 was cotton. The ports original four cargo docks were kept so busy that funding for two more docks was approved by voters just two yearstop - left : Elihu Ropes was the first to invest in a ship channel to Corpus Christilater. The economy of the Coastal Bend would change forever when giant oil fieldstop - right : Postcard rendering of Bascule draw bridge, which opened in 1926were discovered throughout the area in the early 1930s. The first industrial plantmiddle : North and south sides of the 1959 Harbor Bridge close to intersectingon the port was Southern Alkali Corporation, now PPG Industries, which opened inbelow : Major trucking accident at curved ramp onto the Harbor Bridge, 20171934 and was attracted to the area by its abundance of cheap fuel and raw materials the company used, including salt, oyster shell and limestone. Taylor Refining soon opened, and the expansion of the port never took a break. In the 1930s alone, a ma-neuvering basin was dredged, oil docks were expanded, the channel was deepened twice and the extension of the port to Tule Lake was approved.While the Bascule Bridge was a celebrated symbol of progress for Corpus Chris-ti, drivers who had to cross it on a regular basis soon lost their enthusiasm. As the port grew, shipping traffic required the raising of the bridge thirty times per day or moreat twenty minutes or more per crossing. By the 1950s a grain elevator had been constructed, the channel had been widened to 400-feet from 200, the exten-sion of the port to Tule Lake was completed, and residents and truckers frustration with the Bascule Bridge Bottleneck had reached a boiling point. At the very peak of Americas biggest expansion of infrastructure, including the building of the Inter-state Highway System, funding for the Harbor Bridge was approved as part of the construction of IH-37 from San Antonio to North Shoreline Blvd.Built of steel and reinforced concrete, the gleaming new, through-type arch bridge opened to great fanfare in 1959the newest symbol of progress for the Coast-al Bend, and a new visual icon for Corpus Christi. While the bridge did not increase TheCoastalBend.cTHE Com OASTAL BEND MAGAZINEFEATURED: The Stories that Mattered THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINEMarch/April 2018 2760 TheCoastalBend.com'