The Last Link

From Corpus Christi to the Mexican border, the slender, 119-mile-long finger of Padre Island guards the Texas gulf coast from the Gulf of Mexico, forms the shallow waters of Laguna Madre. Within this calm lagoon one day last week, two huge Government dredges, the Caribbean and the Miami, chewed their way towards each other through mud, sand, shell and stone. About eight months ago, the Caribbean had started north from Brownsville, the Miami south from Corpus Christi. Last week the big cutting blades of the dredges slashed through the last barriers between them—completing the last link in the $80...

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