Texas Almanac, 1952-1953 Page: 288
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288 TEXAS ALMANAC.-1952-1953.
length of the canal is from Apalachee Bay,
Fla., to the Rio Grande. Following were the
controlling depths of the canal from the
Sabine River to Brownsville as of Jan. 1,
1950, according to report of the district office,
Corps of Army engineers Galveston Ten feet
at mean low tide from sabine River to Gal-
veston; nine feet from Galveston to Freeport;
8.2 feet from Freeport to Colorado River;
nine feet from Colorado River to Port O'Con-
nor; 10 feet from Port O'Connpr to Port
Aransas; 9 feet from Port Arthur to Baffin
Bay; 10:5 feet Baffin Bay to Port Isabel.
Statement of traffic:
Grand Total
*tSections (Exc. Dupli-
*Section 1. 2 and 3. cations).
Year- tShort Tons. :Short Tons. $Short Tons.
1940 ....... 6,924,881 362,205 7,072,560
1941 ........10,306,237 1,216,305 11,522,542
1942 ........13,113,739 1,901,735 14,996,699
1943 ........12,415,855 2,565,479 14,905,439
1944 ....15,264,908 3,114,848 17,523,526
1945 ........13,459,996 3,425,386 15,908,020
1946 . 10,500,047 4,665,589 13,978,202
1947 ........12,561,706 4,405,013 15,238,542
1948 ........15,414,265 6,548,464 19,670,183
1949 .. ...13,854,190 6,244,782 20,406,051
90.5 e , from Sabine River to Galveston,
90.5 eds; Section 2, from Galveston to Corpus
Christi, 203 miles; Section 3, from Corpus Christi
to Mexican border, 153 miles.
tTraffic over Section 3 began in 1948, in which
year it amounted to 25,842 tons; in 1949 it was
307,079 tons.
:Vessel traffic.
Duplications not excluded.
\Texas Aviation-Airports
There were 638 airports of all classifications
in Texas early in 1951, according to the Air-
man's Guide, issued by the U.S. Civil Aero-
nautics Administration, March 27, 1951.
These included twenty-two major military
bases of the U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy,
and approximately fifty minor military fields.
There were eighty-five airports of the three
top-ranking classifications. There were ap-
proximately 28,000 licensed pilots in Texas,
of whom a little less than half were com-
mercial pilots.
Aviation development in Texas began at an
early date. Public interest in flying received
its first impetus with the establishment of
several of the nation's leading military air-
fields in Texas during World War I. The
mild Texas climate, level topography -and
wide spaces of open prairie influenced the
government in selecting this area for much
of its training in the pioneer aviation era.
From this beginning the development of
both military and civil aviation in Texas has
been rapid. Some of the nation's most im-
portant military bases are located in this
state. (See pp. 318-320.) Civil aviation has
also developed rapidly and in 1951 Texas was
generally the first-, second- and third-ranking
state in aviation activity as measured in
number of airports, and licensed aircraft and
pilots.
Early Commercial Aviation.
Commercial aviation began in Texas on
May 12, 1926, with the first air-mall service
between Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago. The
first passengers were carried in Texas in
1928 when Texas Air Transport was formed,
flying from Dallas to San Antonio and Fort
Worth to Galveston. TAT was owned and
operated by Temple Bowen and later became
Southern Air Transport, eventually becoming
part of American 'Airlines System.
Air Lines in 1951.
The following eleven air lines served points
in Texas as of July 1, 1951.
American Airlines serves the cities of Dal-
las, Fort Worth, Big Spring, Midland, Odessa,
El Paso, San Antonio and Texarkana. It of-fers service from coast to coast and from
Canada to Mexico with three international
gateways to Mexico in Texas-San Antonio,
El Paso and Dallas.
Braniff International Airways with its in-
ternational headquarters at Love Field in
Dallas, flies to thirteen Texas cities on its
29-city domestic system. From Dallas, it flies
north to Oklahoma City, Kansas City and
Chicago, with both local and express service
to the Great Lakes. Braniff flies from Dallas-
Fort Worth to Colorado, serving Lubbock,
Wichita Falls and Amarillo. Eastern terminus
of the system is Memphis, Tenn., connected
with Texas by Braniff's route through Okla-
homa-and Arkansas. Braniff serves six Latin-
American countries through the Houston
gateway, with overnight service from Texas
to Rio de Janeiro. Flights serve Cuba, Pan-
ama and South America.
Chicago and Southern Air Lines with head-
Quarters in Memphis, Tenn., touches Texas
with a route from Houston to Beaumont-Port
Arthur, north to Shreveport, Little Rock,
Kansas City and Chicago and east to Mem-
phis. International service from Houston is
also provided to Cuba, Jamaica and Vene-
zuela.
Continental Air Lines with general offices
in Denver, Colo., serves the western part of
the state from San Antonio northwest to San
Angelo, Big Spring, Midland-Odessa and El
Paso to New Mexico and Colorado. It also
flies from Lubbock to Wichita Falls toward
Oklahoma.
Delta Air Lines with an operations base in
Fort Worth. western terminus of its route
from home base in Atlanta, Ga., serves Dal-
las, Tyler and Longview-Kilgore-Gladewater
eastward through Shreveport to New Orleans
with another route to Birmingham, Atlanta
and Miami.
Eastern Air Lines connects San Antonio
with Houston and flies along the Gulf coast
from Brownsville to Corpus Christi, Houston
and Beaumont, connecting with Louisiana
and the eastern seaboard.
Mid-Continent Air Lines, stemming out of
its Kansas City headquarters through Okla-
homa, stops in Texas at Paris, flying on to
Houston via Tyler and another route via
Longview-Kilgore-Gladewater. Texarkana is
served on its Kansas City-New Orleans
route.
Pan American Airways flies from Houston
to Mexico City via Corpus Christi and
Brownsville and also nonstop from Houston
to Mexico City. Pan American maintains a
large terminal station at Brownsville, operat-
ing southward from that city and connecting
there with Braniff and Eastern.
Porieer Air Lines serves eighteen Texas
cities from its Dallas base. One route extends
to Waco, Temple, Bryan and Houston. From
this coastal terminus another route extends
to Austin, San Angelo, Midland, Odessa,
where it turns north to Lubbock and Ama-
rillo. Again from Dallas a route extends to
Fort Worth, Mineral Wells, Abilene, with one
branch to Sweetwater, Big Spring, Midland,
Odessa, and another branch to Lubbock.
Clovis, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New
Mexico.
Trans Texas Airways serves twenty-seven
cities. From Its Houston base, it flies to Gal-
veston, Port Arthur-Beaumont, Lufkin, Pales-
tine, and Dallas; to Victoria, San Antonio,
Uvalde, Eagle Pass, branching off south to
Laredo, Mission-Edinburg-McAllen, Harlingen,
and Brownsville and west to Del Rio, Fort
Stockton, Marfa-Alpine and El Paso. From
Dallas it flies to Fort Worth, Brownwood,
San Angelo ahd Fort Stockton. '
Trans World Airline, a transcontinental
carrier based in Kansas City and serving
Europe, Africa and Asia internationally, dips
into Texas at Amarillo on its coast-to-coast
route.
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Texas Almanac, 1952-1953, book, 1951; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117137/m1/290/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.