the first section of the gcl was the st. louis, brownsville and mexico railway. construction was done by the b.f. & p.m. johnson co. of st. elmo, illinois, which began in 1903 from robstown, texas (near corpus christi) to brownsville, texas. the line was opened for business on july 4, 1904. by the end of 1907, the stlb&m was extended to houston, with trackage rights via the gulf, colorado and santa fe railroad between algoa and houston. the railroad was the first to reach the rio grande valley, where it had a great effect on the region. according to the "handbook of texas online",