The John F. Kennedy Memorial Causeway is a paved highway located in
Corpus Christi, Texas
Corpus Christi (; Ecclesiastical Latin: "'' Body of Christ"'') is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patrici ...
. The causeway crosses the
Laguna Madre and connects
North Padre Island with
Flour Bluff
Flour Bluff is a specified area of the city of Corpus Christi, Texas. It is located on Encinal peninsula bordered by Corpus Christi Bay on the north, Oso Bay on the west, the Laguna Madre on the east and the King Ranch to the south. South Padre I ...
on the Texas mainland.
History
Proposals for a causeway date back to the 1920s, when the Gulf Coast Causeway Company, chartered on 8 October 1925, proposed to build toll roads connecting Corpus Christi to
Brownsville via Padre Island as part of a two-year, $1.5 million investment pledge for private development on the island.
Later,
Cameron County sheriff Colonel Sam A. Robertson, who had previously chartered the Brazos de Santiago Pass Ferry Company that provided ferry access to the island, used his private capital to build the Don Patricio Causeway in 1927.
This causeway, named after the previous owner of the island Patrick Dunn, consisted of four parallel wooden troughs on
trestles, spaced apart so that the standard automobiles of the time could drive across by placing its tires in them. The causeway opened on 4 July 1927 and was destroyed on 5 September by the
1933 Cuba–Brownsville hurricane; it was not rebuilt.
First bridge
Port Lavaca
Port Lavaca () is a city in Calhoun County, located in the U.S. state of Texas. The population was 12,248 at the 2010 census and 11,557 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Calhoun County and part of the Victoria, Texas Metropolitan Statis ...
-based Bauer-Smith Dredging Company started construction on the first bridge in February 1949; the project was funded by $1.7 million in public bonds.
The 4.5 mile
long raised roadway structure opened on 17 June 1950 as a
toll road and was originally called the North Padre Island Causeway; on 26 November 1963,
Nueces County officials renamed it after
President Kennedy following his
assassination
Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have ...
in
Dallas four days prior.
The tolls were removed on 31 October 1967; Nueces County turned over ownership of the bridge to the
on 1 January 1968.
Current bridge
As bridge traffic increased, the need to replace the
swing bridges over the
Intracoastal Waterway along the causeway increased as well. Dredging began in 1970, and the $2.5 million bridge, which was constructed with precast segments transported in from offsite that were joined together with epoxy resin, was finished and was formally dedicated on 28 June 1973.
The new bridge was the first
post-tensioned concrete
Prestressed concrete is a form of concrete used in construction. It is substantially "prestressed" ( compressed) during production, in a manner that strengthens it against tensile forces which will exist when in service. Post-tensioned concreted ...
segmental box girder bridge built in the United States.
See also
*
List of memorials to John F. Kennedy
This is a list of memorials to John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States from 1961 to 1963.
Memorials, busts, and statues
In the United States
*John Fitzgerald Kennedy Memorial in Dallas, Texas
* The Eternal Flame, JFK's final ...
References
Transportation in Corpus Christi, Texas
Buildings and structures in Corpus Christi, Texas
Road bridges in Texas
Concrete bridges in the United States
Monuments and memorials to John F. Kennedy in the United States
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