1955 Map of East Brownsville

About this map

The winding loops of the Rio Grande define the southern edge of this mid-century Texas landscape, where the international boundary separates the United States and Mexico. The urban core of Brownsville expands outward from the Old Fort Brown Reservation, its residential growth reaching toward the Resaca de la Palma Battlefield and neighborhood institutions like Ebony Hts Sch. The map reveals a complex hydraulic system of ditches, canals, and levees designed to manage the Rio Grande delta's ancient oxbow lakes, known locally as resacas.