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Snake Creek Bridge

Coordinates: 24°57′08″N 80°35′16″W / 24.95226°N 80.58769°W / 24.95226; -80.58769
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Snake Creek Bridge
Coordinates24°57′08″N 80°35′16″W / 24.95226°N 80.58769°W / 24.95226; -80.58769
Carries US 1 (Overseas Highway)
CrossesSnake Creek
LocaleIslamorada, Florida
Official nameSnake Creek Bridge
Maintained byFlorida Department of Transportation
Characteristics
DesignBascule bridge
History
Opened1981
Statistics
TollNone
Location
Map

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]

Aerial photo taken in 1987

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Snake Creek Canal Bridge". Bridge Hunter. Retrieved 20 April 2016.
  2. ^ History of Overseas Highway
  3. ^ "Boot Key seen as a potential nature preserve". The Miami Herald. 11 January 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Bauer, Marilyn (June 1, 2008). "Travel 411: New Jewfish Creek Bridge opens". TCPalm.
  6. ^ "Boot Key Bridge". Key West Diary. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
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