This Corpus Christi water tower is located at the intersection of 11th and Elizabeth Streets.
By 1914 Corpus Christi was served by four railroads, the Texas Mexican, the San Antonio
and Aransas Pass, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico, and the San Antonio,
Uvalde and Gulf. The expanding network of links with the outside world contributed to
the town's rapid development.
A city administration elected in 1913 headed by mayor
Roy Miller adopted an agressive program of modernization.
The efforts, however, all seemed to come to naught on September 14, 1919, when the
city was hit by a powerful hurrican that destroyed much of the North Beach area and
the central business district and killed some 350 to 400 people.
In 1922 President Warren G. Harding approved a rivers and harbors act that authorized construction of the ship channel.
Finally, on September 14, 1926, seven years to the day after the hurricane hit, the
jubilant city celebrated the opening of its deepwater port. The impact on Corpus
Christi was immediate. In just ten years, from 1920 to 1930, the city's population
more than doubled.
