Collins Avenue, partly co-signed State Road A1A, is a major thoroughfare in

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

, United States. The road runs parallel to the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

Miami Beach, Florida Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida. The municipality is located on natural and human-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean ...

, one block west. It also runs through the cities of Surfside and

Sunny Isles Beach Sunny Isles Beach (SIB or more commonly Sunny Isles, and officially the City of Sunny Isles Beach) is a city located on a barrier island in northeast Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of So ...

to the north. Collins Avenue was named for John S. Collins, a developer who, in 1913, completed Miami’s first bridge,

Collins Bridge The Collins Bridge was a bridge that crossed Biscayne Bay between Miami and Miami Beach, Florida. At the time it was completed, it was the longest wooden bridge in the world. It was built by farmer and developer John S. Collins (1837–1928) wi ...

, connecting Miami Beach to the mainland across

Biscayne Bay Biscayne Bay is a lagoon with characteristics of an estuary located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida. The northern end of the lagoon is surrounded by the densely developed heart of the Miami metropolitan area while the southern end is large ...

Background

Collins Avenue is home to many historic

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

hotels, and several nightclubs to the north. North of 41st Street this boulevard lies between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Creek, lined by palm trees, and famous hotels from the 1950s and 1960s such as the Eden Roc and the Morris Lapidus-designed

Fontainebleau Hotel The Fontainebleau Miami Beach, also known as the Fontainebleau Hotel, is a hotel in Miami Beach, Florida, United States. Designed by Morris Lapidus, the luxury hotel opened in 1954. In 2007, the Fontainebleau Hotel was ranked ninety-third in th ...

, built in the curvy, flamboyant Neo-baroque fashion that defined the 1950s "Miami Beach" resort hotel style.The Collins Avenue Story - Absolutely Florida
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Significant events

The annual Miami International Boat Show occurs on Collins Avenue. On February 2, 1973, a mentally ill man firebombed a cafeteria at 1921 Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, killing three people and injuring over 130. On June 24, 2021, an apartment building at 8777 Collins Avenue in Surfside partially collapsed, resulting in 98 fatalities.

Background

Significant events

References

Further reading