Galveston was named after Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish governor of Cuba, Louisiana, and Florida. The Port of Galveston, the oldest deepwater port on the Gulf of Mexico west of the Mississippi River, began operating in the 1830's. Galveston was founded in 1836 and received a city charter in 1839. It was the largest city in Texas in 1880 and the most important seaport in the south during the Civil War, exporting large amounts of cotton, while France, England, and Spain maintained consulates there. After 1875, the U.S. Immigration Station was established at Pier 29, and the city became the port of entry for thousands of immigrants. In 1900, a hurricane later known as the Storm of 1900 devastated the city. Its revival required a seawall and the raising of the grade around over 2,000 structures, including Ashton Villa. The causeway connecting Galveston Island to the mainland of Texas opened in 1912. Galveston remains a major port linked by a channel with the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, exporting cotton, tea, rice, and oil-drilling equipment, supporting a ship repair industry, and servicing offshore oil drilling rigs. Known as the Texas Queen of Victorian architecture and the Oleander City, Galveston also hosts festivals including Dickens on the Strand and Mardi Gras, serves as a convention and tourist resort city, and holds an important place in Texas history through the people who arrived there by sailing vessel and spread their influence across the state. Among Texas firsts, Galveston established the state's first Chamber of Commerce in 1845, the first convent, the Ursuline Convent, in 1847, the Galveston, Houston, Henderson Railway in 1853 as the oldest railroad in Texas still operating under its original charter, and the Galveston Wharf Company in 1854 as the first terminal, now known as the Galveston Wharves.