LAVACA BAY · READING THE ROAD
Lavaca Bay’s
bridge dedicationThe ceremony came first.
Port Lavaca & Point Comfort · July 1, 1961
Oversized aluminum scissors marked the new causeway’s dedication. The approaches were still unfinished, and another hurricane would intervene before permanent traffic could use the road.
Explore the storyTHE ASSEMBLY
The Sea Horse carried the new Lavaca Bay road
A road section travels by barge
The Sea Horse lifts a 150-ton precast roadway section into position. Its lifting frame surrounds the concrete unit; the construction method depended on moving a finished section without damaging it.
Source: Texas Highways, August 1961. Photographer not identified in the scans.
Selected photographic detail from the second magazine spread. Magazine source
Most of the new causeway reached the bay as prefabricated concrete.
The August account explained how roadway sections were cast on shore, transported to the water by a giant crane and placed aboard the Sea Horse. The barge lifted each 150-ton section into position with winch cables. The report gave a normal rate of two slabs a day and about three hours for each installation. Construction method, second spread
Look at the frame around the suspended section. Handling the concrete was a major part of the engineering. A completed roadway unit included its supporting girders and smaller details, rather than a deck that crews would finish entirely over open water. Each installed section was bolted independently into place.
Our April 1960 construction article follows the casting yard and foundation work in more detail. By the dedication, the offshore assembly had produced a long, divided road, with its high central section leaving room for boats below.
THE TRAFFIC
SH 35 would no longer wait for the drawbridge
The new bridge gave motorists and boat operators separate paths through the same crossing.
The old causeway had a drawbridge. When it opened for boats, road traffic stopped. The replacement’s channel span rose 45 feet above the water at its apex, and the magazine presented that clearance as a way to keep both forms of traffic moving. The old drawbridge photograph shows the narrow approach drivers had used. Old and new crossings, second spread
The article also recalled detours of at least 80 miles when the damaged old crossing could not serve trucks and motorists. It compared that with the six-mile trip between Port Lavaca and Point Comfort over the causeway.
Plans called for retaining parts of the old structure as fishing piers and removing the middle to clear boat passage. A later TxDOT history records that the Port Lavaca end did become a lighted fishing pier. The old bridge could continue giving people access to the bay after its road role ended. The later pier history
The old crossing had to open for boats
A vehicle approaches the old two-lane drawbridge. The narrow roadway and movable span show two limits the four-lane replacement was intended to remove.
Source: Texas Highways, August 1961. Photographer not identified in the scans.
Selected photographic detail from the second magazine spread. Magazine source
THE OPENING
The July 1961 ceremony came before full traffic use
The ribbon cutting did not mean the entire road was ready for permanent traffic.
The August 1961 account said the causeway itself was complete, but work continued on the approaches. It expected those connections to be finished in early fall and stated the limit plainly:
“The causeway cannot be opened permanently to traffic until the approaches are finished.”
The remaining work was then overtaken by another storm. TxDOT’s August 2003 retrospective dates the traffic opening to 1962 and says Hurricane Carla moved part of the new bridge’s superstructure in 1961. Beams and deck on the Point Comfort side had to be repaired and repositioned before the road could be used. TxDOT’s later account
July 1 remains the dedication date. The unfinished approaches in the contemporary report, and the later account of storm repairs, explain why the ceremony and the practical opening belong at different points in this crossing’s history.
ROAD AND RECORD
Two dates, different milestones.
July 1 dedication; approaches remain unfinished in the August report.
Traffic opening dated by TxDOT’s later history, following storm repairs.
Sources: the magazine account and TxDOT retrospective.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
Sources & further reading
The new commentary uses both surviving magazine scans. Selected photographic details support the discussion; the complete original scans remain available here and in the viewer.
- Texas Highways, “Texas’ Longest Bridge Dedicated,” August 1961. Two spreads; printed folios 3 and 4 are visible. No article byline or photographer credit is established by these scans. Original scans: opening spread · second spread.
Return to: the ceremony · the assembly · the traffic · the opening · local industry supplied the scissors · a road section travels by barge · the old crossing had to open for boats.
- Mike Cox, “One that got away — old TxDOT causeway burns”. TxDOT Transportation News, vol. 28, no. 10, August 2003, p. 10 (PDF page 10), preserved by the Portal to Texas History. Supports the 1962 traffic-opening date, Hurricane Carla repairs and the old causeway’s conversion to a fishing pier. It supplies a later chronology alongside the contemporary dedication account.
About this article: TexasFreeway presents selected historical images for commentary, analysis and education under fair use. Images remain credited to their respective sources. Their inclusion here does not grant permission for reuse elsewhere.
Online supporting sources checked October 4, 2026. The source issue date describes the historical magazine, not the preparation date of this commentary.
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THE CEREMONY
Lavaca Bay’s dedication used a locally made ribbon
The scissors were aluminum, and the ribbon was aluminum foil and polyethylene. Port Lavaca’s bridge dedication made room for the industries across the bay.
On July 1, 1961, State Highway Commission Chairman Herbert C. Petry Jr. joined former chairmen E. H. Thornton Jr. and Marshall Formby to dedicate the new SH 35 causeway between Port Lavaca and Point Comfort. Alcoa at Point Comfort made the large scissors. Alcoa and Union Carbide supplied the ribbon materials, according to Texas Highways. The dedication account
Those details connected the ceremony to the traffic the new bridge was intended to carry. The magazine described growing industry at Point Comfort and credited the local plant with producing the causeway’s aluminum railing. Four traffic lanes and a raised median replaced a narrow two-lane crossing with a low axle-load limit.
Calhoun County officials announced the name E. H. Thornton Causeway, honoring the chairman whose administration had approved the project. The photographs preserve the public ceremony; the Lavaca Bay construction collection supplies views of the road before that gathering.
Local industry supplied the scissors
Herbert C. Petry Jr., Marshall Formby and E. H. Thornton Jr. dedicate the causeway with oversized aluminum scissors. The ribbon combined aluminum foil and polyethylene supplied by nearby industry.
Source: Texas Highways, August 1961. Photographer not identified in the scans.
Selected photographic detail from the opening magazine spread. Magazine source