The Port & the Tall Ship Elissa

Galveston was born of the sea. Its deep natural harbor made it the great port of Texas — the doorway through which cotton left the state, immigrants arrived, and fortunes flowed. This walk keeps to the working harborfront, where the past floats right in front of you: an iron sailing ship more than a century old, restored to full rig and still able to sail; the berth of the shrimp-boat 'Mosquito Fleet' that fed the city; a preserved offshore drilling rig from the age of Gulf oil; and the granite commercial rows where the port's merchants counted their money. Along the way you'll cross the ground where a Confederate improvised navy retook the island in a New Year's dawn battle. It's a short stroll, but it holds the whole seafaring soul of the island — sail, steam, shrimp, and oil, all tied up along the same few piers.