Brazos Santiago Pass (Texas)

Brazos Santiago Pass
Coast Survey of Brazos Santiago Pass ca. 1867[1]
Illustration of Brazos Santiago Pass
Location on Texas Gulf Seacoast Show map of Texas Brazos Santiago Pass (Texas) (the United States) Show map of the United States
Location	Brazos Island Cameron County, Texas Port Isabel South Padre Island
Country	United States
Coordinates	26°03′56″N 97°09′31″W / 26.06563°N 97.15858°W / 26.06563; -97.15858 (Brazos Santiago Pass)
Specifications
Length	1.14 miles (1.83 km)
NOAA NDBC	Brazos Santiago ~ BZST2
History
Former names	Brazos Island Harbor Channel Brownsville Channel Port Isabel Channel
Modern name	Brazos Santiago Inlet
Current owner	State of Texas
Geography
Direction	West
Start point	Gulf of Mexico
End point	Port Isabel
Beginning coordinates	26°03′59″N 97°08′42″W / 26.06631°N 97.14496°W / 26.06631; -97.14496 (Brazos Santiago Pass Entrance)
Ending coordinates	26°03′59″N 97°09′50″W / 26.06632°N 97.16395°W / 26.06632; -97.16395 (Brazos Santiago Pass Exit)
Branch(es)	Laguna Madre
Branch of	Lower Laguna Madre Lower Rio Grande Valley
Connects to	Boca Chica Pass Gulf Intracoastal Waterway Port of Brownsville South Bay
GNIS feature ID	1372708

Brazos Santiago Pass is a natural coastal landform located in the Lower Laguna Madre and Lower Rio Grande Valley on the furthest southern beach terrain of the Texas Gulf Coast.^[2] The seacoast passage is interpolated by barrier islands encompassing the southern Brazos Island and the northern South Padre Island.^[3]

The waterway inlet is a navigable strait spanning a water depth of 42 feet (13 m) and a waterway channel distance of 1.14 miles (1.83 km). The Brazos Santiago channel and seaward approach is defined by parallel jetties designed with a breakwater separation of .25 miles (0.40 km). The jetty harbor development sustains the passage entrance from coastal erosion, coastal sediment transport, longshore drift, and sandbank shoals. The South Padre Island jetty is .6 miles (0.97 km) from the Padre Island shoreline annexed by the Boca Chica jetty extending .3 miles (0.48 km) into the Brazos Island continental margin.

The natural ocean inlet has a shoreline distance on Brazos Island of 7.5 miles (12.1 km) to the Rio Grande often entitled as the Mexico–United States border.