Dr. Patricia Bixel

Yeah, it was built in alternating sections.

And they had these massive forms that they would put up and they would fill with concrete.

And then they went back and fill in with the next section.

And people were aware of seawalls.

Other places had seawalls.

So this is not something that's terribly unusual.

This initial seawall was three miles long.

I think now the seawall...

It's at least 10 and maybe more, and it goes significant distance down the island.

It's a place where people walk and run, and there's a road that goes alongside of it that moves you pretty much the entire length of the island.

So it's been very much integrated into the geography of the island.

It was very interesting.

The grade-raising, there really hasn't been a grade-raising done like this anywhere in the country.

Other cities have done it in small areas and small sections.

But just in summary, I will say, before explaining how they did it, about 500 blocks were filled.

It took 16.3 million cubic yards of fill.

And the way that they did it, the company that they hired was a firm called Gedhart & Bates.

Gethart and Bates commissioned dredges from Holland, from the Dutch.

And they came across the Atlantic Ocean to Galveston.

They dug a canal through the island from the east end, reasonably far into the island, that the dredges would be able to traverse, the dredges could go into.