The old causeway that connected Port Isabel and South Padre Island will soon be gone. The Texas General Land Office started work to remove it last year to protect boaters.

Now materials from the bridge are getting repurposed to create a new environment, and the old causeway is expected to be demolished in June 2026. 

John Delgado became the captain for Breakaway Cruises eight years ago. One area he always avoided was the site of the old Queen Isabella Causeway.

"If you run that way, the only issue we've got is it can get shallow and it can get stuck," Delgado said.

Delgado says boaters unfamiliar with the waters get stuck around the area.

"People who are not from the area that come with their own pleasure boats for vacations, if they don't have the proper equipment on their boats and if they don't know if it gets shallow in that area, they are pretty much running aground," Delgado said.

The original Queen Isabella Causeway was built in 1952. Within decades, the current causeway was built.

Eventually the old bridge was condemned around 50 years ago. People and drivers weren't allowed to use it anymore.

Over time the metal rebar inside rusted, damaging the concrete. It became a safety hazard.

"Over the years, there is debris falling into the water, so even though you see the bridge, you might know that there is a big piece of concrete that just fell a while back and you might hit it with your boat," President of the Friends of the RGV Reef Curtis Hayungs said.

The Texas General Land Office started demolishing the bridge five months ago.

Working alongside the GLO, Hayungs says pieces of the old bridge will get repurposed into an artificial reef eight miles east of the South Padre Island jetties. Removing the material will make the waterways safer for boaters.

"Once the causeway has been cleaned up and material deployed, then it will be open to the public to pass through there to different areas of the bay," Hayungs said.

Delgado says the old Queen Isabella Causeway will always be remembered by boaters.

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