1911 Fishing Pier/SAL Placida Trestle and 1958 Boca Grande Causeway to Gasparilla Island, FL

1911 SAL: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

1958 Road: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Bridge Hunter; no Historic Bridges; Satellite)

SAL = Seaboard Air Line

While studying the Boca Grande Depot, I noticed that the railroad and highway had rather long bridges to get to the island. So I looked them up to find the length of the bridges. Unfortunately, Bridge Hunter doesn't have a length for either one. So I practiced using the distance measure tool in Google Maps. The railroad bridge was 2 miles (3.2km).

The swing span in the road bridge is unusual in that it uses steel girders. That is because it is unusual to build swing spans in the later half of the 20th Century. By then, most road bridges were trunnion bridges. I like this view because it shows there is a lot of boats in the channel. Fortunately, the swing span is high enough that most boats can pass under it and it doesn't need to open.

Giguere Interactive, Mar 2019

The railroad used a rolling span across the channel. It is at trestle height, so it was low over the sound. Thus it would have had to open frequently.

Photo by Jim Courtright via BridgeHunter
The bridge was abandoned and the drawbridge removed in 1981. It was converted in 1983. [I presume that is when it was converted to the fishing pier.]

There are other channels under the road bridge, but they appear to be blocked by the trestle.

Giguere Interactive, Mar 2019