For its first 70 years in Mobile and along the Gulf Coast, the engineers surveyed and fortified the southern coast from St. Mark’s River in Florida to Lake Pontchartrain to the west. Forts were the key elements of the coastal defense system. However, complementary structures such as lighthouses and towers were also constructed. In addition to the coastal fortifications, Gulf Coast engineers also began surveys to examine the connection of inland waterways with the Tennessee-Coosa River canal study.
Following the Civil War, an engineering office was established in Mobile, Alabama. 18 years later, the Mobile District was officially established in a formal reorganization of operations at the national level.
Mobile District has consistently responded to the call from our national leaders to enhance our capabilities and capacity to meet the Nation’s priorities. In civil works, our mission has continuously evolved with the passage of a series of River and Harbor Acts in 1882 and other legislation that charged us with navigation along the Gulf Coast and inland waterways, as well as later flood control and hydropower. The Nation has continued to ask more and more of its Army and the Army’s engineers as it matured. These missions also include our support for other federal agencies. Mobile District is proud to have been selected to support and build many vital facilities for our federal partners, enabling them to deliver on their core missions. Mobile and Gulf Coast folklore attributes the construction of numerous roads, hospitals, ports, and customs facilities to the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Many of these facilities’ official records are now lost to the ages. However, countless other remarkable projects exist, from lighthouses and tunnels to administrative facilities and dams. Many one-of-a-kind structures and their impacts are etched in our history, both in the past and the present.
Since then, the Mobile District has responded to changing defense requirements and played a vital role in the country’s development. Throughout the 19th Century, the Corps of Engineers built coastal fortifications, surveyed roads and canals, eliminated navigational hazards, explored and mapped the Western frontier, and constructed buildings and monuments in the Nation’s capital.
The District’s boundaries were from the Escambia River westward to the East Pearl River. Montgomery District had responsibilities from the Escambia River eastward to the St. Mark’s River in Florida. In 1933, the two Districts merged into one, the Mobile District. The District was also given responsibility for all military construction for the Army and the Army Air Corps in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama.
The 1930s were a period of significant activity for the Mobile District. Modernization of the Black Warrior River system began, taking the number of locks required to transit the waterway from 17 to 5. Construction of Brookley Field, the Southeast Army Air Depot, and the Mobile Air Service Command commenced during World War II. The Flood Control Act of 1936 initiated a national flood protection plan. It granted the Corps jurisdiction over federal flood control protection, investigation, and river improvements.
As busy as the 1930s were, World War II resulted in the most significant wartime mobilization effort ever for the United States. The magnitude of Mobile District’s work can be judged by expenditure for construction. Between December 1941 and December 1943, nearly $1 Billion, more than $26 Billion in 2023 dollars, was expended in the District on facilities that included 32 Army airfields, an ordnance training center, two arsenals, three Army ground force depots, five harbor defense installations, nine Civil Aviation Administration airfields, two Army Air Force supply depots, one Army Air Force cantonment, six ordnance manufacturing plants, nine Army ground force cantonments and six special installations.
As the Nation’s priorities shifted following World War II and the emergence of the United States as a global power, the Cold War ushered in a new age of discovery as we aimed our sights at the stars.
Whether building facilities that enabled the US Army space program to send Explorer 1 into orbit on January 31, 1958, or constructing test stands in preparation for NASA’s moon mission, Mobile District’s support to national priorities has helped impact the Nation’s move toward the future.
In the 1960s, the Mobile District achieved numerous accomplishments, including support for the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and the Mississippi Test Facility. But its most notable contribution was supporting the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Camille ravaged the region in August of 1969. Not since World War II and the Korean Conflict had the District been called upon to respond to its history’s most serious peacetime challenge. The District responded by demonstrating its capabilities and effectiveness when called upon to function under pressure.
The 1970s saw the District welcome President Richard Nixon as it began construction on the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway, providing a commercial waterway link between the Tennessee and Tombigbee rivers.
In the late 1980s, SOUTHCOM requested support for several small construction projects in Latin America. These small, under $ 100,000 purchase orders led to increased requests for support, including requirements in Honduras, where the DoD had begun to conduct limited operations from Palmerola, now known as Soto Cano Air Base. As the US presence at Soto Cano grew, SAM became involved in constructing the current US enclave on the Honduran base.
In 1993, SAM requested permission to establish an Area Office in Colombia to better support the expanding mission. This approach evolved over time, resulting in the current model of forward construction, engineering, project management, and the presence of active-duty officers in key regional countries. Focus areas for the program, ranging from counternarcotics to climate change, have developed to match changing US priorities. However, support for US forces in the region and SOUTHCOM’s Humanitarian Assistance efforts remain central to the program. In recent years, an increasing interest in improving water resource management has led to a growing program of international agreements providing technical support to partner nations.
Engineering efforts related to the turnover of the Panama Canal Authority in 2000 also contributed to the District’s LATAM program’s continued development by signing a contract with the Panama Canal to provide cooperation and technical assistance for the development of engineering services, environmental sustainability, operation, disaster damage reduction, and risk analysis of integrated water resources management, among other activities, to ensure the safety and security of the Panama Canal, which is vital globally in shipping.
The 1990s-2000s saw the Mobile District’s Emergency Management Division respond to numerous tornados and provide support to many that hit the region, none more devastating than the EF4 multiple-vortex tornado that destroyed portions of Tuscaloosa and Birmingham, Alabama, one of the costliest tornadoes on record.
Recently, the Mobile District has successfully supported the island of Puerto Rico’s recovery from the devastating impact of Hurricane Maria on the island. We completed the repair of Ship Island and other barrier islands off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi after those islands were damaged following Hurricane Katrina. The District is currently in the middle of a multi-billion dollar rebuild of Tyndall Air Base, Florida, after it was devastated and nearly destroyed following the impact of Hurricane Michael.
However, it is not just our response to helping others recover from natural disasters that have a significant impact; it is also helping our partners, whether the federal government or local industry partners, complete the projects vital to them, which allows us to say genuinely, Mobile Delivers!
We completed the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. This $38 million project will enable NASA to achieve its mission of re-exploring the Moon shortly. The District also completed the James A. Haley Veterans Administration Bed Tower project in Tampa, Fla., which will enable the VA to continue providing excellent medical care for our Nation’s veterans.
In March 2020, the District, the entire country, and the world dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic. The shutdown and closure of government facilities required the District to implement total telework at the beginning and max telework for most of the pandemic. The District also assisted state and local officials throughout Alabama in developing a plan to increase hospital bed space in case the pandemic and the need for more hospital beds worsened.
Today, the Mobile District is on schedule to complete a project that will deepen and widen the Mobile Harbor, allowing for increased shipping and transportation within the harbor. This will significantly benefit not only the City of Mobile but also the state of Alabama. Leveraging over $1.3 billion in public shoreside terminals and channel investments in Alabama’s only seaport to ensure economies of scale and competitive rates for the seaport’s mining, manufacturing, agribusiness, and retail/distribution shippers.
The District recognizes that actual credit goes to the entire team’s efforts, from the public’s requirements to Congress’ appropriations to the careful and deliberate direction of supported commands and agencies, to our contractors’ expertise, innovation, and building prowess, and to USACE’s and Mobile District’s relentless drive to execute high-quality projects in a transparent and accountable matter.
As you read the history in this edition, you can hear the voices of the people who have poured their lives into building this legacy, and they can be heard echoing, “ESSAYONS! (LET US TRY!).” It is these conscientious professionals who have done their part in building a strong United States with its vibrant economic engine and an unsurpassed national defense – they have also constructed purposefully a Mobile District legacy that is uniquely American. Mobile Delivers!
Mobile District Across Time