The wooden causeway was built on pilings by a man named Sam Robertson and opened on July 4, 1927. Robertson drove the first automobile across. For the first time, the mainland was joined to the island and a steady stream of traffic crossed the causeway, 1,800 cars the first month and 2,500 the second.
Found on https://www.facebook.com/TracesofTexas
Sam Robertson founded San Benito, served as a scout for Army forces chasing Pancho Villa, and enlisted in World War I, where he went to France as a colonel in command of the 22nd Railroad Engineers.
Back home after the war, Robertson had plans for the last frontier in Texas, Padre Island. He was one of the first to understand the island’s great appeal. With three investors from Kansas City, he bought the island from Patrick F. Dunn with plans to develop both ends of the island. He planned to build a 110-mile toll road down the length of the island, called the Ocean Beach Driveway, and he built the Don Patricio Causeway from below Flour Bluff to the island, named in honor of Pat Dunn.
The wooden causeway built on pilings opened on July 4, 1927. Robertson drove the first automobile across. For the first time, the mainland was joined to the island and a steady stream of traffic crossed the causeway, 1,800 cars the first month and 2,500 the second.
http://www.caller.com/opinion/columnists/murphy-givens/railroad-engineer-built-first-causeway-to-the
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