The three-member engineering board convened after the 1900 disaster spent four months studying storm hydraulics before recommending something without American precedent: a 17-foot curved concrete seawall and the raising of 500 city blocks with 16.3 million cubic yards of dredged sand.
Galveston built it all. The wall held against every subsequent storm. But curved concrete reflects wave energy downward, and that energy scoured the shoreline. The wide beach that had defined Galveston as a resort destination slowly disappeared behind the very structure meant to preserve it.