Port of Brownsville

The Port of Brownsville is a deep water seaport in Brownsville, at the southern tip of Texas.

Geography
The port is the southern terminus of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway. The port is located near the river mouth of the Rio Grande and Lower Rio Grande Valley plain, only 8 mi north of the Mexico - United States border.

Brownsville Ship Channel
The deep water Brownsville Ship Channel, to/from the Gulf of Mexico, passes between Padre Island and Brazos Island, Barrier islands of the Gulf Coast. The channel also passes the old harbor of Los Brazos de Santiago, the landing place of the Spanish explorer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda in 1519 and subsequent colonizers from the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

The channel is dredged to handle ships of 42 ft draft at high tide, and can support ships up to 850 ft overall length and a 135 ft beam.

Service
The port serves South Texas and, via rail connections, much of northeast Mexico including the large industrial city of Monterrey in Nuevo León state.

The Port of Brownsville is governed by the Brownsville Navigation District, a political subdivision of the State of Texas. The District is guided by an elected Board of Commissioners that establishes the policies, rules, rates and regulations of the Port and approves all contractual obligations.