Jacksonville's Bridges

 

The Bridges of Duval County

 

by Alec Newell





The Main Street Bridge against the Jacksonville skyline

Henry Holland Buckman

There are only two of the world's great rivers that flow north, the Nile is one and the St. Johns River is the other.   As the St. Johns flows into Duval County it passes the first of the eight bridges that span the river on its way to the Atlantic Ocean.  The Buckman Bridge, built in 1970, connects Mandarin to Orange Park, and is named for Jacksonville lawyer and State Legislator Henry Holland Buckman (1858-1914).  At its west end, the bridge lands at the north-south boundary between Clay and Duval County.   As the river moves through Jacksonville, it flows past seven more bridges on its way to the Mayport  Jetties.  Can you name them?  If you said the Fuller Warren, the  Acosta, the Main Street, the Isaiah D. Hart,  the Mathews, and the Dames Point Bridges, you'd almost be right.
 

Crews replacing the single track swing bridge with the double tracked "bascule lift" Florida East Coast 
Railway Bridge, taken from the original Acosta Bridge circa 1925
 

The first bridge to span the St Johns river at Jacksonville was the Florida East Coast Railway Bridge.   Built by Henry Flagler in 1889, it was a single track swing bridge that allowed direct rail access from Jacksonville to Southside and the beaches beyond.   That bridge was replaced in 1925 by a double tracked "bascule lift" bridge that still operates.  It runs closely parallel to the west side of the Acosta bridge, and since it carries no automobile traffic, many people forget that it's even there.  Until 1921, all automobile traffic that crossed the river near Jacksonville had to go by ferry.

Original Acosta Bridge (foreground) FEC Railway Bridge (middle ground)
Fuller Warren Bridge (in the distance)

 

 

The St. Elmo W. Acosta home circa 1885

Jacksonville's first major bridge built for pedestrian and automobile traffic was named for St. Elmo W. Acosta (1875 -1947).  Informally known as Chic Acosta, he had been a City Commissioner, a State Legislator, and is still remembered as one of Jacksonville's first "green" politicians, and an opponent of women's suffrage.  The home that he and his family lived in at Empire Point is now part of the Episcopal High School Campus, and is currently used for classrooms and studio space by the Fine Arts Department there.
 

The Acosta house as part of the Episcopal High School Campus

By July of 1941 Jacksonville had its second automobile bridge.  Commonly known as the Main Street Bridge, or simply called the "blue bridge" by some; it is officially neither.  In 1957 the bridge was named as a tribute to Jacksonville's only 18 year, seven term Mayor.  There is a seldom noticed sign over the south entrance of the structure to indicate the span's official name, the John T. Alsop Jr. Bridge.

 

 

Governor Fuller Warren

The original Fuller Warren Bridge was completed in 1954, and named for Florida's 30th Governor, who had also served as both a State Representative and as a member of the Jacksonville City Council.  For a time, the Fuller Warren was one of Jacksonville's three toll bridges.  The tolls were lifted in 1988 during Mayor Tom Hazouri's administration, and in 2002 the original bridge was replaced by an eight lane prestressed concrete span of the same name.
 

Another one of Jacksonville's (former) toll bridges connects the Arlington Expressway to Downtown Jacksonville.  It was built in 1953 and named for John E. Mathews, a Florida State Legislator who had also served as Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme court.  In 1984 the bridge was painted maroon red to celebrate the Jacksonville Bulls who were then members of the now defunct U.S. Football League.

John E. Mathews Bridge

The Isaiah D. Hart Bridge completed in 1968, also called the Green Monster by some commuters, was named for the Patriot War veteran and plantation owner Isaiah David Hart (1792-1861) who is credited with founding Jacksonville in 1822.  Several of Jacksonville's downtown streets are named for his children:  Julia, Laura, and Ocean, which is named for Ossian B. Hart, who would become Florida's 10th Governor in 1873.

The Isiah D.Hart Bridge from North Florida Shipyards



The Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge to Dames Point

Napoleon Bonaparte Broward

The newest and probably the most visually impressive span, commonly known as the Dames Point Bridge, is officially the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge;  it is named for Florida's 19th Governor.  Broward (1857-1910), who was orphaned at twelve, decided on a maritime career, and came up through the ranks as a tug boat operator, riverboat captain, and bar pilot.  He served a stint as Jacksonville's sheriff but left that office to become a gun runner during the Spanish American War.  At that war's end, he returned to a political career that culminated in a Florida Governorship.  Broward's old home still stands facing the St. Johns River, near the entrance to the Kingsley Plantation on Ft. George Island.  The address is 9953 Heckscher  Drive, 9.3 miles east of the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward  Bridge.

Home of Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward
9953 Heckscher Drive, Ft. George Island