Harbor Island's roots date back to the initial channelization of the Neches River during the early 20th Century.

Crews dredged a cut through what was then a peninsula jutting from the Orange County shoreline and created an island. The island existed until the 1970s, when the Port of Beaumont filled in the Neches River's meander between the island and the mainland to construct the Harbor Island Marine Terminal.

Today, scores of ships dock at Harbor Island, which includes 1,880 feet of berthing space and three transit sheds that offer 245,000 square feet of covered storage space.

Other terminal amenities include:

• 100,000 square feet of open wharf space
• 97-foot-wide aprons facing the transit sheds
• 40 feet of water alongside wharf
• Deck load capacity of 1,200 pounds per square foot
• 22 acres of heavy-duty hard stand adjacent to the open wharf, backed by 17.5 acres for vehicle marshaling
• Shed doors 20 feet high and up to 26 feet wide for high, wide loads and entry for all-weather truck unloading or container stuffing
• Twin marginal rail tracks along the wharf's full length
• Truck-height unloading platform along the open wharf's rear
• Undercover working track for all-weather rail car unloading in transit sheds

The terminal is immediately upstream from the port's Roll-On/Roll-Off ramp. The T-shaped ramp is 94 feet wide and 168 feet long, with a graded slope of less than 6 percent and a 40-foot wide roadway for two-way traffic.