BROWNSVILLE

city, seat (1848) of Cameron county, extreme southern Texas, U.S. It lies along the Rio Grande opposite Matamoros, Mexico, 22 miles (35 km) from the river's mouth. With Harlingen and San Benito it forms an industrial, agribusiness, and port complex. On March 28, 1846, General Zachary Taylor placed the U.S. flag on the site (then part of Matamoros) and constructed a fort, later named Fort Brown for Major Jacob Brown, who died (May 9) defending it from Mexican attack. Taylor's arrival signaled the beginnings of the Mexican War, which began in earnest after the Thornton Skirmish (April 25, 1846). On May 8 and 9, 1846, the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma were fought there. During the American Civil War, Brownsville and Matamoros served as ports of call for blockade runners handling guns and ammunition and for Confederate cotton, and on May 12 and 13, 1865, a Federal force was captured at nearby Palmito Hill by Confederates under General Richard Taylor (a month after the war had ended). Modern Brownsville got its start when the first standard-gauge railroad arrived from Kingsville in 1904. The city was the scene of the Brownsville Affair of 1906, in which black soldiers were unjustly accused of murdering a white man and wounding another. Brownsville's deepwater port (opened 1936), with a 17-mile (27-km) channel, serves as the southwestern terminus of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and handles a range of bulk cargoes, including fuel oil, ores, and grains; it is also the harbour for a large shrimp fleet. Brownsville's industries include petrochemicals, aircraft repair, and food processing. The city is an international air, highway, and rail focus and is the largest urban centre in the irrigated lower Rio Grande valley, which supports the raising of cotton, grain, winter vegetables, citrus fruit, and livestock. Brownsville's economy is augmented by tourism, based on the nearby Boca Chica Beach, the Padre Island National Seashore, and gateway facilities to Mexico. The city's annual pre-Lenten Charro Days festival combines Texan and Mexican culture. The city is the seat of the upper-division University of Texas at Brownsville (1973) and its affiliate Texas Southmost College (1926), which has surviving buildings of Fort Brown on its campus. Inc. 1850. Pop. (1990) city, 107,027; BrownsvilleHarlingenSan Benito MSA, 260,120; (1998 est.) city, 137,883; (1996 est.) BrownsvilleHarlingenSan Benito MSA, 315,015.