28 THE COASTAL BEND MAGAZINE • March/April 2018 TheCoastalBend.com left: A wonder of the modern world, Panama Canal construction in 1912 right: New Panama Canal expansion allows the world’s biggest ships to cross below: Ship departs Port of Havana for the U.S. as trade with Cuba opens up bottom: Mega-tanker, Anne, made a dry stop at the Oxy oil dock in 2017. the height capacity for ships passing into the port—the Bascule was a draw bridge of- fering 140-foot clearance—the width capacity of the channel inside the port greatly increased, but most of all, the traffic problems had been much alleviated. The ben- efits were immediate as growth came quickly to Portland; North Beach experienced a rebound in the 1970’s, and; commerce and the integration of communities between Nueces, San Patricio and Aransas Counties finally flowed freely. For the first time, the Coastal Bend functioned as a true metropolitan area. I n the 59 years since the construction of the Harbor Bridge, the Port of Corpus Christi has evolved into the economic powerhouse of the Coastal Bend. The development of the La Quinta Channel along the northern coastline of Corpus Christi Bay, in San Patricio Country, has led to in- dustrial investment in the port that is on a world-wide scale. Half of the auto air conditioner refrigerant sold in the U.S. is produced in Ingleside at the 120-acre facility owned by DuPont subsidiary Chemours. Kiewit Offshore builds the world’s tallest and deepest-drilling oil and gas plat- forms. Near Portland, Austrian-based Voestalpine recently opened the largest “direct reduction” iron plant in the world, where iron oxide pellets imported from Brazil and Sweden are fired at over 1,300°F into high-grade “sponge iron,” that is then exported to Europe, to the company’s own steel mills, and eventually used to build new Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Porsche automobiles. Voestalpine’s plant in San Patricio County is the largest investment by an Aus- trian company in the U.S., at almost $750 million, and was driven by what has be- come the single, most attractive natural asset offered in South Texas—cheap natural gas, and lots of it. This one, primary asset also attracted China’s largest, single in- dustrial investment in the U.S., the Tianjin-Texas Pipe Company plant in Gregory, where high-quality, industrial grade piping is produced for the U.S., European and South American energy industries. A robust rail system and shipping facilities at the Port of Corpus Christi made the site in San Patricio County the hands-down best location for the $1 billion-plus facility. Of no small consideration to these, or any international manufacturing concern scouting production sites in the Western Hemisphere, is proximity to the Panama Canal. What is still considered a marvel of human accomplishment, the passage that connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans was recently expanded with a third set of