The Lynchburg Ferry is a free

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

across the

Houston Ship Channel The Houston Ship Channel, in Houston, Texas, is part of the Port of Houston, one of the busiest seaports in the world. The channel is the conduit for ocean-going vessels between Houston-area terminals and the Gulf of Mexico, and it serves an incr ...

in the U.S. state of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, connecting Crosby-Lynchburg Road in Lynchburg to the north with the former State Highway 134 and San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site in La Porte to the south. Operated by the

Harris County Toll Road Authority The Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA, pronounced "HECK-trah") maintains and operates a toll road system in the Greater Houston area. Its headquarters are located in Houston's Fairbanks/Northwest Crossing neighborhood. History HCTRA came ...

, the crossing is the oldest operating ferry service within the state of Texas. It carries

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...

bicycle A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered or motor-powered assisted, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two wheels attached to a frame, one behind the other. A is called a cyclist, or bicyclist. Bic ...

s and

pedestrian A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In modern times, the term usually refers to someone walking on a road or pavement, but this was not the case historically. The meaning of pedestrian is displayed with ...

s for free. Harris County had operated the ferry from 1888 to 2020. Ferries depart daily approximately every 5–10 minutes, beginning at 4:30 a.m. (04:30) and operate through 8:15 p.m. (20:15) and have a maximum capacity of 12 vehicles. The service averages between approximately 1,500-2,000 vehicles per day. The service has two ships in its fleet, both completed in 1964 by the

Todd Shipyard Vigor Shipyards is the current entity operating the former Todd Shipyards after its acquisition in 2011. Todd Shipyards was founded in 1916, which owned and operated shipyards on the West Coast of the United States, East Coast of the United S ...

. The ferries are named in honor of former Texas governors

William P. Hobby William Pettus Hobby (March 26, 1878 – June 7, 1964) was known as the publisher/owner of the '' Beaumont Enterprise'' when he entered politics and the Democratic Party. Elected in 1914 as Lieutenant Governor of Texas, in 1917 he succeeded t ...

and

Ross S. Sterling Ross Shaw Sterling (February 11, 1875March 25, 1949) was an American politician who was the 31st Governor of Texas, serving a single two-year term from January 20, 1931, to January 17, 1933. Early years Sterling was born in Anahuac in Chambers ...

. A third ferry with a capacity of 9 vehicles dating from 1937 is available on standby if needed.

History

The present-day location of this ferry can trace its origins back to 1822 when it was constructed by Nathaniel Lynch just below the confluence of the San Jacinto River and the

Buffalo Bayou Buffalo Bayou is a slow-moving body of water which flows through Houston in Harris County, Texas. Formed 18,000 years ago, it has its source in the prairie surrounding Katy, Fort Bend County, and flows approximately east through the Houston Ship ...

and was known as Lynch's Ferry. The ferry was used by the

Republic of Texas The Republic of Texas ( es, República de Tejas) was a sovereign state in North America that existed from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846, that bordered Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande in 1840 (another breakaway republic from Mex ...

troops fighting Mexican forces in the Battle of San Jacinto April 1836. In what was later referred to as the

Runaway Scrape The Runaway Scrape events took place mainly between September 1835 and April 1836 and were the evacuations by Texas residents fleeing the Mexican Army of Operations during the Texas Revolution, from the Battle of the Alamo through the decisive Ba ...

, as many as 5,000 Texans fled eastward to escape the advancing army of Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna utilizing the ferry. In the following days,

Sam Houston Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played an important role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two i ...

's army defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto, which resulted in

Texas independence Texas secession movements, also known as the Texas independence movement or Texit, refers to both the secession of Texas during the American Civil War as well as activities of modern organizations supporting such efforts to secede from the Unite ...

. By 1837 the Harris County Commissioners Court would set formal ferry rates only to eliminate them in 1890, and the ferry service has been free ever since. By 1949 the ferry service was renamed as the Lynchburg Ferry in serving as the first vehicular crossing of the Houston Ship Channel. Lynchburg Ferry Historical Marker

The service would operate 24 hours per day, 365 days a year under the operation of Harris County through June 2004 when hours were reduced to their current times. Replacement vessels have been under consideration by the county since late 2004, but have yet to be ordered. On March 1, 2020, operations of the Lynchburg Ferry, along with the

Washburn Tunnel The Washburn Tunnel is a two-lane underwater motor-vehicle tunnel connecting Galena Park and Pasadena, two suburbs of Houston, Texas. Completed in 1950, it travels north-south underneath the Houston Ship Channel. It was named after Harris Count ...

, were transferred from Harris County Precinct 2 to the Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA). There are no plans for HCTRA to implement tolls either the Lynchburg Ferry or the Washburn Tunnel. Nevertheless, HCTRA's involvement will include plans to improve the operations of both facilities, as well as much-needed repairs and upgrades.

Accidents and incidents

* February 26, 1995 - A barge struck the south landing resulting in the closure of the service for over eleven weeks. The service would reopen on May 11, 1995. * September 19, 2004 - A woman drowned after the vehicle she was in was driven off the ferry into the channel. The driver was subsequently charged with

intoxication manslaughter Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th cen ...

in the death. * May 14, 2008 - A man appeared to deliberately drive his truck into the Houston Ship Channel, authorities said, refusing help from horrified witnesses who were waiting to board the Lynchburg Ferry. Witnesses say the man locked doors and refused help before going under. * September 12, 2008 -

Hurricane Ike Hurricane Ike () was a powerful tropical cyclone that swept through portions of the Greater Antilles and Northern America in September 2008, wreaking havoc on infrastructure and agriculture, particularly in Cuba and Texas. Ike took a sim ...

caused approximately $300,000 damage to the Lynchburg Ferry. The ferry was closed 52 days for repair and reopened November 3, 2008.

References

{{coord, 29.7635, -95.0800, type:landmark_region:US-TX, display=title Crossings of the Houston Ship Channel Ferries of Texas 1822 establishments in the United States