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.
Snake Creek Bridge | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Coordinates | 24°57′08″N 80°35′16″W / 24.95226°N 80.58769°W |
| 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 |
| Location | |
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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]
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See also edit
References edit
- ^ "Snake Creek Canal Bridge". Bridge Hunter. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
- ^ History of Overseas Highway
- ^ 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.
- ^ Bauer, Marilyn (June 1, 2008). "Travel 411: New Jewfish Creek Bridge opens". TCPalm.
- ^ "Boot Key Bridge". Key West Diary. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
External links edit
Media related to Snake Creek Bridge at Wikimedia Commons
