In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway atop an embankment usually across a broad body of water or wetland.

Etymology

When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by two different routes. It derives ultimately, from the Latin for heel, calx, and most likely comes from the trampling technique to consolidate earthworks. Anciently, the construction was trodden down, one layer at a time, often by slaves or flocks of sheep. Today, this work is done by machines. The same technique would have been used for road embankments, raised river banks, sea banks and fortification earthworks. (The layers, though not the trampling action, can be seen in the Bayeux Tapestry: Building Hastings Castle.)

The second derivation route is simply the hard, trodden surface of a path. The name by this route came to be applied to a firmly-surfaced road. It is now little-used except in dialect and in the names of roads which were originally notable for their solidly-made surface.

Battleship Parkway, commonly referred to locally and in the media as the "Causeway", is an elevated 7-mile (11.3 km) long causeway that carries US 90 and US 98 eastbound across Mobile Bay from the Bankhead Tunnel on Blakeley Island in Mobile, Alabama to Spanish Fort, Alabama. The roadway itself is a four-lane divided highway for most of its length. It is very susceptible to flooding and is usually submerged during hurricane storm surges. The Battleship Parkway is home to Battleship Memorial Park and to many of the Mobile area's more prominent seafood restaurants.

History

It was constructed in 1926 as a series of raised earthen embankments and concrete bridges. It was the only road connection between Mobile and Baldwin counties over Mobile Bay until the construction of the nearby Jubilee Parkway in 1978.

Starting 2007 a 3.4-mile-long (5.5 km) turtle fence was constructed along part of the causeway to protect the Alabama red bellied cooter from traffic.

See also

A causeway is a road or railway elevated by a bank, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.

Causeway may also refer to:

Locations