SPACEPHOTOS

Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, USA April 1998 An extensive highway network (light colored lines) provides ground linkage between the cities of Beaumont (near the center of the image) and Port Arthur (top left), as well as other urban areas in southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. Gridded street patterns and a gray color indicate these two industrial cities. A segment of Interstate Highway 10 can be traced diagonally (top right to lower left) crossing the flat, coastal plains and passing through downtown Beaumont. Sabine Lake and Sabine Pass (dark looking water outlet to the Gulf of Mexico) are visible in the southeast corner (upper left) of the picture. The Nueces River and its heavily wooded, broad floodplain is more difficult to identify along the eastern side of the Beaumont and Port Arthur urban areas. The darker looking area north of Beaumont is the southern edge of the well-known Piney Woods of east Texas. This largely undeveloped region contrasts with the angular patterns of the cultivated fields, which are mainly large rice fields, west and southwest of Beaumont. Sugar cane is grown in selected areas closer to the coast. Notice the large stand of trees (darker landscape, lower left corner) that is located midway between the cities of Beaumont and Winnie