Description
The longest river in Texas; heads at the confluence of Salt Fork Brazos River and Double Mountain Fork, near the eastern boundary of Stonewall County. Flows 840 miles across Texas to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico, 2 miles south of Freeport in Brazoria County (The Handbook of Texas). Brazo means arm in Mexico, so figuratively speaking a brazo in refering to a stream means ab arn if a river. Lopez, Barry, and Gwartney, Debra (eds.), 2006, Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape: Trinity University Press, San Antonio, TX, pg 49.
History
The name of the stream is derived from Los Brazos de Dios, "the arms of God."