By the 1970's new multi-lane causeways were constructed at both ends of Padre Island, each connecting with resort communities thickly settled with high rise condominiums, luxury motels, restaurants, second homes for city dwellers and special service centers to accommodate tourists who crowd the beaches the year around. In county-owned Isla Blanca and Andy Bowie Parks cabanas and overnight shelters and facilities for trailers and camping are maintained.
South Padre Island is an incorporated village with police and fire departments, post office, banks, shops and super-markets, service stations and a community auditorium large enough for conventions. A valuable addition is the Marine Biology Laboratory, a part of Pan American University at Edinburg. Resort development on a similar scale is well under way at the Corpus Christi end of the island.
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In such sybaritic settings, it is almost impossible to picture the empty solitude, the magnificent sweep of ocean, sand and sky beckoning the visitor to venture beyond the pavement's end.
Present length of State Road 100 on South Padre Island is about 12 miles. Tentative plans call for extending the paved road to the Port Mansfield Cut, or a total distance of 33 miles. A proposed ferry across the cut would give visitors access to the Padre Island National Seashore at the southern end, where park facilities for the public will eventually be developed. At present, the only access to the National Seashore is at the north end of Padre near Corpus Christi. The paved park road leads to Malaquite Beach, the first of a series of public facilities the National Seashore plans to establish.
