Jim King photo
Texas Railroad History - Tower 134 - Houston (Pierce Junction)
Crossing of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railway and the International - Great Northern Railroad
The first railroad in Texas was constructed by the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and
Colorado (BBB&C) Railroad from Harrisburg on Buffalo Bayou west to Stafford in
1853. In those days, Harrisburg's rival was Houston located on Buffalo Bayou a
few miles further upstream, and the concerned citizens of Houston sought a
railroad to connect their town with the BBB&C. Had they failed to do so, our
nation's 4th largest city might today be known as Harrisburg. The 6 1/2 mile
Houston Tap railroad was built in 1856 running south from Houston to connect
with the BBB&C at what thus became the first railroad junction in Texas.
Beginning in 1858, under the charter of the Houston Tap & Brazoria Railroad, the
Houston Tap rail line was extended further south, reaching East Columbia in
1860, some 45 rail miles south of the BBB&C junction. East Columbia was at that
time a major shipping center near the Brazos River, and the railroad picked up
the nickname "Columbia Tap", a nickname that persisted throughout its history
despite a merger into the International & Great Northern (I-GN) Railroad in 1873. The
Columbia Tap served the sugar plantations south of Houston, one of which was
owned by Thomas W. Peirce (who used the uncommon "ei" spelling) at Arcola.
The Columbia Tap railroad provided Peirce's sugar plantation
with access to steamships at Harrisburg via the connection with
the BBB&C. Peirce's wealth gave him an interest in the development
of railroads in Texas, and by 1857, he had become a director of
the Houston & Texas Central (H&TC) Railway and also had
some interest in the BBB&C. In 1859, a small community was
founded at the junction of the two railroads and was named Peirce
Junction. The BBB&C continued building west and reached the
east bank of the Colorado River by 1860. The Civil War significantly
disrupted the BBB&C's traffic, and after the war, the line
went bankrupt. The contractor that had built it, William Sledge,
acquired the railroad in a judgment, and in 1870, Peirce became
part of small investor group that purchased the railroad from
Sledge under a new charter, the Galveston, Harrisburg and San
Antonio (GH&SA) Railway. Peirce soon bought out the other
investors, and the line was commonly known as the "Peirce
Line". It is interesting to note that by 1874, the railroad
was using the nickname "Sunset Route" to describe its
route to San Antonio, a nickname later adopted by Southern Pacific
for the entire route to California which was completed in west
Texas in 1883.
In 1880, the GH&SA built its own line into Houston, paralleling
the Columbia Tap for several miles before turning to the northwest
to cross the SA&AP at Tower 12 and the H&TC west of downtown at
Chaney
Junction (Tower 14). For the GH&SA, the departure point from the main line
was officially known as "Stella", but it was located near "Pierce" Junction, a
revised spelling from the way Thomas Peirce spelled his name. [It appears that
this spelling change was forced by the Post Office when the town of "Pierce
Junction" (spelled "ie") was granted a post office in 1876. Although the town of
Pierce Junction didn't last long - the post office was closed in 1878 - the
Pierce Junction name with the revised spelling stuck.] In 1918, the GH&SA
opened a new route into Houston (via West Junction and
Tower 13) and abandoned
the line from Stella to Chaney Junction (Almeda Road appears to be constructed
on the former GH&SA right-of-way). It is not known whether
there was ever a manned railroad tower to control Peirce Junction
in the early days. Railroad Commission records state that Tower 134 with a
10-function cabin interlocker was commissioned at Pierce Junction on March 27, 1929. A cabin
interlocker would indicate that at least one of the lines was
seldom used, and this was the case for the Columbia Tap rail line
by the late 1920s. As railroads developed more favorable routes
into town, the Columbia Tap was abandoned some distance north
of Peirce Junction.
The former GH&SA line is still intact and sees regular Union
Pacific traffic through Pierce Junction. A major oil field
that was discovered beneath the rail junction in 1906 (in what,
ironically, is known as a "shallow PIERCEment salt dome",
so-called because heat and pressure have forced the dome to rise
enough that it "pierces" overlying sediments.) The Pierce
Junction Oil Field has produced more than 90 million barrels of
oil, some of which undoubtedly must have moved by tank car through
the interlocker at Pierce Junction.
Location Map - Tower 134
Satellite Image, Pierce Junction
