[1] Nearly all of the river is located within the city of Houston; it is a defining geographic feature of many neighborhoods and districts, including Meyerland, Braeswood Place, the Texas Medical Center, and Riverside Terrace.

[2] Brays Bayou has its source at an artificial stormwater detention basin south of Barker Reservoir in extreme western Harris County.

After briefly entering Westchase, the Brays turns southward, bisects the International District, and straddles the western edge of Sharpstown.

The confluence of Brays and Buffalo bayous was the original focal point for Anglo-American settlement in the region with the founding of Harrisburg in 1825.

Harrisburg would remain the region's primary trade center until after the American Civil War, when economic momentum shifted to Houston.

[4][5] Frequent flooding along the Brays made its floodplain ideal for growing rice, which became a cash crop in Alief through the early 20th century.

During the 1930s, Riverside Terrace, south of the Third Ward, became home to the large forested estates of Houston's wealthy Jewish community, which had been segregated out of River Oaks.

Like many other Houston bayous, Brays Bayou was channelized by the United States Army Corps of Engineers between 1955 and 1960 after severe flooding earlier in the decade.

[16] The Brays Bayou Greenway serves as an important linear park through a broad region of Houston, providing 30 miles (48 km) of grade-separated hike-and-bike trails.

Arthur Storey Park doubles as a large stormwater detention basin which can hold up to 1.1 billion US gallons (4.2×10^9 L) (about 3,376 acre feet) of water during flood events.