While standing on Pier 21, you will be able to see pelican Island across Galveston Harbor.
Pelican Island is home to Texas A&M University in Galveston, Seawolf Park, and the Galveston Naval Museum, which exhibits a World War II era destroyer escort and submarine.Pelican Island is mostly man-made from mud pulled from the Galveston, Texas City, and Houston ship channels during dredging projects over the past century. When a ship channel is deepened and widened, there needs to be a place to put the mud and pelican island became the ideal place for engineers looking for a place to expand real estate in Galveston bay. Maps dating back to the late 1800s and early 1900s show two small islands north of Galveston itself known as Pelican Island and Pelican Spit. I highly recommend driving to the far east end of pelican Island to experience the Galveston Naval Museum and Seawolf Park. Seawolf Park is known in this part of Texas as a first class fishing destination. As you look across the water from Pier 21, you probably see ships, oil rigs, tugboats, or possibly all of the above. Pelican Island is Home to multiple Maritime related businesses including dry docks for vessel and oil rig repair, tugboat companies, offshore vessel services and even a dock specifically made to load crude oil onto shipping vessels. 

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