[2] 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.

[4] Port Lavaca-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.

[1][2] The 4.5 mile[2] long raised roadway structure opened on 17 June 1950 as a toll road[1] and was originally called the North Padre Island Causeway; on 26 November 1963, Nueces County officials renamed it after President Kennedy following his assassination in Dallas four days prior.

[1] The tolls were removed on 31 October 1967; Nueces County turned over ownership of the bridge to the Texas State Department of Highways and Public Transportation on 1 January 1968.

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.