Snake Creek Bridge

Coordinates: 25°10′53″N 80°23′00″W / 25.1813°N 80.3834°W / 25.1813; -80.3834

Snake Creek Bridge
Carries US 1 (Overseas Highway)
Crosses Snake Creek
Locale Islamorada, Florida
Official name Snake Creek Bridge
Maintained by Florida Department of Transportation
Characteristics
Design Bascule bridge
History
Opened 1981
Statistics
Toll None

Snake Creek Bridge is a bascule bridge in the village of Islamorada in the Florida Keys. The single-leaf 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 2008, when the Overseas Highway's bridge over Jewfish Creek was replaced by the current Jewfish Creek Bridge.[4]


References

  1. "Snake Creek Canal Bridge". Bridge Hunter. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  2. History of Overseas Highway
  3. Boza, Art. "Key’s LAST Remaining Drawbridge". Shoestring Weekends Blog. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  4. Bauer, Marilyn (2008-06-01). "Travel 411: New Jewfish Creek Bridge opens". TCPalm.
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