The St. Elmo W. Acosta Bridge spans the

St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

on a

fixed span In engineering, span is the distance between two adjacent structural supports (e.g., two piers) of a structural member (e.g., a beam). Span is measured in the horizontal direction either between the faces of the supports (clear span) or between t ...

. It is named for City Councilman St. Elmo W. Acosta, who convinced voters to approve a $950,000 bond issue for the original bridge at the site. It carries a total of six lanes of SR 13 with the two-track

Jacksonville Skyway The Jacksonville Skyway is an automated people mover in Jacksonville, Florida. It opened in 1989 and is operated by the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA). The skyway has three stations in Downtown Jacksonville and was extended in 1 ...

in the median and sidewalks on the outside. Prior to its replacement in 1991, the bridge, originally called St. Johns River Bridge, opened in 1921 and carried three lanes (center one reversible) on a

lift bridge A vertical-lift bridge or just lift bridge is a type of movable bridge in which a span rises vertically while remaining parallel with the deck. The vertical lift offers several benefits over other movable bridges such as the bascule and swi ...

of similar design to the nearby Main Street Bridge but was known as the Yellow Monster, largely for its tendency to stick in the upward position. Tolls were charged until 1940, earning more than $4 million for the City of Jacksonville. At some time in 1991, the original bridge was closed to allow construction of the new one to proceed. St Johns River Bridge Opening - Front page of The Florida Metropolis 30 June 1921

St Johns River Bridge Opening - Front page of The Florida Metropolis 30 June 1921

The Acosta Bridge was also notable due to its blue

neon lights Neon lighting consists of brightly glowing, electrified glass tubes or bulbs that contain rarefied neon or other gases. Neon lights are a type of cold cathode gas-discharge light. A neon tube is a sealed glass tube with a metal electrode a ...

that illuminated the bridge at night. In February 2015 the Jacksonville Transportation Authority announced that the neon lights would "be off indefinitely with no return date on the books" citing a lack of funding for repairs. However, in 2019 the JTA began a $2.6 million project to replace the inoperable neon lights with

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (corresp ...

lights. Installation was completed in 2020 and unlike the neon lights, the new LEDs are able to display any color, not just blue.

North (downtown) approach

The original north approach was a T-shaped viaduct, with the bridge ending at Riverside Avenue (

US 17 U.S. Route 17 or U.S. Highway 17 (US 17), also known as the Coastal Highway, is a north–south United States Numbered Highway that spans in the Southeastern United States. It runs close to the Atlantic Coast for much of its len ...

/ SR 15). Just southwest of the Acosta Bridge, Riverside Avenue passed over the adjacent

Florida East Coast Railway The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a p ...

bridge approach. When the bridge was rebuilt, the intersection was rebuilt as a

semi-directional T interchange In the field of road transport, an interchange (American English) or a grade-separated junction (British English) is a road junction that uses grade separations to allow for the movement of traffic between two or more roadways or highways, using ...

. Direct high-speed connections were provided between the bridge and both directions on Riverside Avenue, as well as a direct ramp from the bridge to the intersection of Broad Street and Bay Street (Riverside Avenue splits into a

one-way pair A one-way pair, one-way couple, or couplet refers to that portion of a bi-directional traffic facilitysuch as a road, bus, streetcar, or light rail linewhere its opposing flows exist as two independent and roughly parallel facilities. Descriptio ...

of Broad Street and Jefferson Street north of the bridge).

South approach

The bridge originally emptied out on Miami Road (now Prudential Drive) just west of San Marco Boulevard, with a continuation, at least southbound, to San Marco Boulevard. SR 13 went south on San Marco Boulevard, and was later changed to go east on Miami Road. Around 1958, a system of

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway, and expressway. Other similar terms ...

s was built in Jacksonville. This system included an eastern approach for the recently opened

Fuller Warren Bridge The Fuller Warren Bridge is the prestressed-concrete girder bridge that carries Interstate 95 (I-95) across the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. The current structure was finished in October 2002, replacing the original bascu ...

, along with the older Acosta Bridge and Main Street Bridge, carrying traffic to the Philips Highway (

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, ...

( SR 5)) and Atlantic Boulevard (

US 90 U.S. Route 90 or U.S. Highway 90 (US 90) is an east–west major United States highway in the Southern United States. Despite the "0" in its route number, US 90 never was a full coast-to-coast route. It generally travels near Int ...

( SR 10)). A new approach to the Acosta Bridge was built, splitting from the old one two blocks north of Miami Road, and passing over the intersection of Miami Road and San Marco Boulevard before merging with the other bridge approaches. The old approach became southbound only, and northbound access was provided at Mary Street, two blocks north of Miami Road. A northbound exit was also provided at Mary Street for traffic coming from the south and east. No southbound entrance was provided, but the adjacent Main Street Bridge approach provided access in that direction. When the bridge was rebuilt, the south approach was kept almost identical. The only real difference was a new northbound onramp from Museum Circle, one block north of Mary Street. The popular Diamond Head Lobster House was in its path and had to be demolished.

References

External links

List of Jacksonville Bridges both past and presentAcosta Bridge license plates, allowing owners to travel over the bridge for freeCity of Jacksonville article about the bridges
(

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

) {{Authority control Bridges completed in 1921 Bridges completed in 1994 Bridges in Jacksonville, Florida Road-rail bridges in the United States U.S. Route 1 Road bridges in Florida Railroad bridges in Florida Bridges over the St. Johns River Former toll bridges in Florida 1921 establishments in Florida Concrete bridges in the United States Box girder bridges in the United States