Cargo Ships at the Houston Ship Channel

One of the busiest waterways in the United States, the Houston Ship Channel serves as a critical link between interior Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. Originating with early trade on Buffalo Bayou, which runs through the prairie 30 miles west of Houston to 50 miles southeast of the city at the San Jacinto River and into Galveston Bay, today the Houston Ship Channel facilitates ocean-going vessels between Houston-area terminals and the Gulf of Mexico with an ever-increasing volume of inland barge traffic. The channel also has the largest concentration of chemical industry in the nation with more than 50 processing facilities on either side that provide products to the whole world.

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