Complex sentence: Crossing the Laguna Madre and connecting North Padre Island with the Texas mainland, construction began in February of 1949 and it opened on June 17,1950, as the first post-tensioned concrete segmental bridge built in the United States.
Split into simpler sentences: Crossing the Laguna Madre and connecting North Padre Island with the Texas mainland. Construction began in February of 1949 and it opened on June 17,1950, as the first post-tensioned concrete segmental bridge built in the United States.