State Road 9336 (SR 9336), also known in parts as the Ingraham Highway, Tower Road and West Palm Drive, is an two- to four-lane road in

Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County () is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most-populous coun ...

, in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

. The route is the only signed four-digit state road in Florida. The route connects

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

, and the

Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike The Homestead Extension of Florida's Turnpike (HEFT), designated as unsigned State Road 821 (SR 821), is the southern extension of Florida's Turnpike, a controlled-access toll road in the U.S. state of Florida maintained by Florida's T ...

by proxy, in Florida City with the

Everglades National Park Everglades National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the Un ...

, acting as the park's primary mode of entry. The road continues on from its western terminus at the national park's entrance as Main Park Road for another , providing access to many of the park's facilities and the

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Flamingo Flamingos or flamingoes () are a type of wading bird in the family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas (including the Caribbe ...

, in Monroe County, at its western end.

Route description

The

Florida Department of Transportation The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) is a decentralized agency charged with the establishment, maintenance, and regulation of public transportation in the U.S. state of Florida. The department was formed in 1969. It absorbed the power ...

states that SR 9336 begins at the entrance to the Everglades National Park. Heading northeast from there, SR 9336 is known as the Ingraham Highway as it travels through rural south-western Miami-Dade County as a two-laned road. Just before crossing the Aerojet canal, SR 9336 turns east and continues through farmland, turning again to the northeast after approximately . After crossing another canal, the Ingraham Highway turns east once more and becomes more urban, passing by a housing estate. At its eastern end, outside the Dade Correctional Institution and just over from its western terminus, SR 9336 reaches a

four-way stop An all-way stop – also known as a four-way stop (or three-way stop etc. as appropriate) – is a traffic management system which requires vehicles on all the approaches to a Intersection (road), road intersection to stop at the intersection be ...

intersection and continues north out of it along Tower Road. Although SR 9336 travels through farmland for the next , the surroundings become more urbanised as it approaches West Palm Drive where, at another four-way stop intersection, SR 9336 travels east along that road. Here, SR 9336 enters Florida City, and enters suburbia after one block east along West Palm Drive, continuing eastwards past shops, churches and schools. Through Florida City, it acts as the city's

grid plan In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogon ...

's latitudinal baseline. At 6th Avenue, West Palm Drive becomes a divided four-laned road, and remains as such for the rest of its journey; later, after passing the Florida City City Hall, the southern terminus of the South Miami-Dade Busway and more shops, SR 9336 intersects with Krome Avenue (former SR 997). One block further east, and now designated as East Palm Drive, SR 9336 terminates at US 1. West of SR 9336's western terminus, Main Park Road extends for another to Flamingo, through various ecosystem areas of the Everglades National Park. East of SR 9336's terminus, East Palm Drive (also known as Southwest 344th Street) extends along the former SR 906 towards the Homestead-Miami Speedway,

Biscayne National Park Biscayne National Park is a national park of the United States located south of Miami, Florida, in Miami-Dade County. The park preserves Biscayne Bay and its offshore barrier reefs. Ninety-five percent of the park is water, and the shore of th ...

and the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station.

History

Excluding the easternmost two blocks, SR 9336 was (with SR 997) part of the former SR 27, which connected Flamingo in the Everglades to

US 27 U.S. Route 27 or U.S. Highway 27 (US 27) is a north–south United States Numbered Highway in the Southern and Midwestern U.S. The southern terminus is at US 1 in Miami, Florida. The northern terminus is at Interstate 69 (I ...

. The easternmost two blocks consisted of the former SR 906, which continued to

. The designation was changed in the early 1980s because of confusion between the state road and the U.S. Highway. Main Park Road, formerly the Ingraham Highway in its entirety, began construction in 1915 to connect Florida City to Flamingo, then a town on the shores of

Florida Bay Florida Bay is the bay located between the southern end of the Florida mainland (the Everglades, Florida Everglades) and the Florida Keys in the United States. It is a large, shallow estuary that while connected to the Gulf of Mexico, has limited ...

, primarily by using the spoil from

dredging Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

the Homestead Canal beside the road. The road had reached as far as Paradise Key, now the Royal Palm area of the Everglades National Park, when it was dedicated with the

Royal Palm State Park Royal Palm State Park was Florida's first state park. It was located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, and has become part of the Everglades National Park. Island ''Paradise Key'' is located southwest of Homestead, Florida. It is a hammock in the ...

on November 23, 1916, as the Ingraham Highway, and named for James E. Ingraham, the president of the Model Land Company and vice-president of the associated

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 ...

. Construction of the road continued west of Paradise Key, and was hampered by difficulties such as subaqueous caverns and the onset of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, with only about built by December, 1917. After the designation of the Everglades National Park in 1947, the SR 27 designation was removed and a detour was created north onto higher ground, as the road was prone to flooding during periods of high water, with portions of the old road re-purposed as park trails or removed. The creation (and refilling) of the canal, as well as digging and blocking culverts under the road have affected flows of fresh and salt water within this part of the Everglades National Park.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{Attached KML, display=inline,title
SR 9336
in Florida at AA Roads 9336 9336 SR=9336 Florida City, Florida

Route description

History

Major intersections

See also

References

External links