The city of Port Arthur; Texas is located within the Beaumont-Port Arthur MSA together with Jefferson County. The city of Port Arthur supports a population of approximately 56,000 people alongside Sabine Lake's banks. Port Arthur is connected to Bridge City via the Rainbow Bridge, which crosses the Neches River.
Originally, a city known as Aurora was situated near the mouth of Taylor Bayou on Sabine Lake. It dates back as early as 1837, with town lots being advertised around 1840 with Almanzon Huston as the head promoter. Although a couple of lots were purchased, the majority did not and the project of Huston failed. Later, the small township was referred to as Sparks, named after John Sparks and his family. Just before the beginning of Civil War the Eastern Texas Railroad was completed. The railroad passed around four miles west of Sparks. At this point, the railroad passing track was called Aurora. In the middle of the Civil War the rails were removed and most of the inhabitants decided to move somewhere else. Some who remained opted to relocate to Beaumont after a hurricane ruined their houses in 1886. Arthur E. Stilwell took advantage of the deserted community and made it the place of his new city, Port Arthur.
The city is recently undergoing an economic boom due to the demand in the energy industry. Some projects that involve the energy infrastructure have been proposed or are currently underway. Two of the biggest projects are the Golden Pass and Sabine Pass LNG terminals; So far, these separate projects have accumulated initial investments of over $2 billion. At their construction peak they would hire thousands of residents.
Port Arthur has seen much investment into the important refining installations. The western Port Arthur refinery, Motiva Enterprises is currently expanding its capacity to more than 600,000 barrels each day. This expansion is the largest US refinery expansion during the last 30 years and is estimated to cost roughly $10 billion. Valero spent $775 million in order to expand its petrochemical plant and BASF/Fina opened a new cogeneration and gasification unit along with renovated its existing installation, that is estimated to have cost $2.75 billion. Port Arthur is also home to the Port of Port Arthur, which is among the leading seaports in Texas States.
There was a large oil tanker and a barge that collided during 2010, spilling over 450,000 gallons of oil into the Sabine/Neches waterway.
During the past few years, the economic slump has been prevalent. Various local companies closed up shop. The Hotel Sabine, that is the tallest building in the city of Port Arthur, had to be deserted. Port Arthur obtained it and tried to sell it in 2005, but there were no interested buyers. To add to the devastation, Hurricane Riva ruined some downtown homes and companies with its direct hit on the Proctor Street Seawall. Nevertheless, as economic activity is slowly revived, Port Arthur has begun to revitalize downtown.