PhotosLocation


Snake_Creek_Bridge Latitude and Longitude:

24°57′08″N 80°35′16″W / 24.95226°N 80.58769°W / 24.95226; -80.58769
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Snake Creek Bridge
Coordinates 24°57′08″N 80°35′16″W / 24.95226°N 80.58769°W / 24.95226; -80.58769
Carries US 1 (Overseas Highway)
CrossesSnake Creek
Locale Islamorada, Florida
Official nameSnake Creek Bridge
Maintained by Florida Department of Transportation
Characteristics
Design Bascule bridge
History
Opened1981
Statistics
TollNone
Location

Snake Creek Bridge is a bascule bridge in the village of Islamorada in the Florida Keys. The single-leaf steel bascule bridge carries the Overseas Highway ( U.S. 1) over Snake Creek, connecting Plantation Key and Windley Key. It is located near mile marker 86.

The bridge was completed in 1981 when a number of new bridges were being built to modernize the Overseas Highway. [1] It is the third bridge that has existed at this location. The first bridge, which carried the Overseas Railroad, was built in the early 1900s. A second bridge built in the 1920s next to the railroad bridge carried the first Overseas Highway (State Road 4A), though the highway would later be shifted to railroad bridge in the 1940s, which was retrofitted for automobile use. [2]

The Snake Creek Bridge is notable for being the only remaining drawbridge operating in the Florida Keys. [3] It gained this distinction in the late 2000s, when the Overseas Highway's drawbridge over Jewfish Creek was replaced by the current Jewfish Creek Bridge in 2008, and the closure and abandonment of the Boot Key Harbor drawbridge in Marathon in 2009. [4] [5]

Aerial photo taken in 1987

See also

References

  1. ^ "Snake Creek Canal Bridge". Bridge Hunter. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  2. ^ History of Overseas Highway
  3. ^ Boza, Art (January 18, 2014). "Key's LAST Remaining Drawbridge". Shoestring Weekends Blog. Archived from the original on October 6, 2016. Retrieved 13 June 2022.
  4. ^ Bauer, Marilyn (June 1, 2008). "Travel 411: New Jewfish Creek Bridge opens". TCPalm.
  5. ^ "Boot Key Bridge". Key West Diary. Retrieved 7 August 2018.

External links