Summary and Pictures of the 1900 Galveston Hurricane Destruction and Engineering the Galveston Seawall and Grade-Raising

The September 8, 1900 hurricane wiped out half of the Galveston buildings and killed 8,000 to 10,000 people, the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history. In 1902, an engineering commission of Henry Martyn Robert (author of Robert's Rules of Order), Alfred Noble (ASCE National President in 1903 who later helped determine the route of the Panama Canal), and Henry Clay Ripley made recommendations for a Galveston concrete seawall on wood pilings and extensive hydraulic-fill from elevations of 3–8 feet to a grade raising of 17 feet. Pictures of the 1900 hurricane destruction, relief efforts, grade raising, and seawall construction are included. On October 13, 2001, ASCE presented the Galveston U.S. Army Engineer District with a plaque designating the Galveston Seawall and Grade- Raising as a National Historical Civil Engineering Landmark (NHCEL).