Snake Creek Bridge Explained

Bridge Name:Snake Creek Bridge
Official Name:Snake Creek Bridge
Carries: (Overseas Highway)
Crosses:Snake Creek
Locale:Islamorada, Florida
Maint:Florida Department of Transportation
Design:Bascule bridge
Open:1981
Toll:None

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. It has held this distinction since 2008, after the replacement of the original Jewfish Creek Bridge with its current high-span bridge, and the closure and abandonment of the Boot Key Harbor Bridge in Marathon.[3] [4] [5] [6]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Snake Creek Canal Bridge. Bridge Hunter. 20 April 2016.
  2. http://www.keyshistory.org/osh.html History of Overseas Highway
  3. News: Boot Key seen as a potential nature preserve . 18 June 2024 . The Miami Herald . 11 January 2009.
  4. Web site: Boza. Art. Key's LAST Remaining Drawbridge. January 18, 2014. Shoestring Weekends Blog. 13 June 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20161006050151/https://shoestringweekends.wordpress.com/2014/01/18/drawbridge/. October 6, 2016. dead.
  5. News: Bauer. Marilyn. Travel 411: New Jewfish Creek Bridge opens. TCPalm. June 1, 2008.
  6. Web site: Boot Key Bridge . Key West Diary . 7 August 2018.