Sunset Drive, also known as Southwest 72nd Street is a east–west

arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector ...

traversing the southwestern suburbs of

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, a ...

, from the northwestern portions of the

Kendall Kendall may refer to: Places Australia *Kendall, New South Wales United States *Kendall, Florida *Kendall, Kansas *Kendall, Missouri *Kendall, New York *Kendall, Washington *Kendall, Lafayette County, Wisconsin *Kendall, Monroe County, Wiscons ...

area to

Coral Gables Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248. Coral Gables is known globally as home to the U ...

. A central portion of Sunset Drive is maintained by 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 state of Florida. The department was formed in 1969. It absorbed the powers of t ...

as State Road 986 (SR 986), which runs from the Homestead Extension (HEFT) underpass to Southwest 69th Avenue and is signed through

South Miami South Miami is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida in the Miami metropolitan area. The population was 11,657 at the 2010 census and as of 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, was 11,911. South Miami's central business district is directl ...

US 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, making i ...

Route description

Western section

Southwest 72nd Street begins as a private dirt road accessing farmland in

unincorporated Unincorporated may refer to: * Unincorporated area, land not governed by a local municipality * Unincorporated entity, a type of organization * Unincorporated territories of the United States, territories under U.S. jurisdiction, to which Congress ...

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 county in ...

, north of

The Hammocks The Hammocks is a historic site in Ormond Beach, Florida, United States. It is located at 311 John Anderson Highway John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testame ...

and west of Kendall West. The road heads east and, upon reaching 167th Avenue, it becomes a paved four-laned divided road. Sunset Drive then continues east past residential neighborhoods for , reaching a collection of neighborhood shopping centers and the western edge of the Kendall West

community A community is a social unit (a group of living things) with commonality such as place, norms, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given geographical area (e.g. a country, villag ...

at Southwest 157th Avenue. From here to its eastern terminus, Southwest 72nd Street is given the designation of

Marjory Stoneman Douglas Marjory Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 – May 14, 1998) was an American journalist, author, women's suffrage advocate, and conservationist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for de ...

Sunset Drive. After another mile (1.6 km), and after passing by more residential neighborhoods, Sunset Drive crosses Southwest 147th Avenue and enters the unincorporated Kendale Lakes. The road passes one block to the south of the

Miccosukee The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Florida. They were part of the Seminole nation until the mid-20th century, when they organized as an independent tribe, receiving f ...

Golf & Country Club, and continues east between the backs of residential neighborhoods for another , older than those lying to the west, with the only break being

Miami Sunset Senior High Miami Sunset Senior High School is a secondary school of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system. The principal is John C. Lux. It is located in the Kendale Lakes census-designated place in unincorporated Miami-Dade County. - Compare thi ...

. After crossing Southwest 127th Avenue, Sunset Drive's character changes as it passes by churches, schools, large-lot houses and market gardens until it reaches the HEFT.

State Road 986 section

The locations of both termini of State Road 986 are unclear, with some commercial mapping and even

(FDOT) material showing the western terminus of SR 986 at Southwest 127th Avenue and the eastern terminus at either the South Dixie Highway (

) or

Red Road Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

. According to the FDOT road inventory, the western terminus of SR 986 lies where Sunset Drive passes under the HEFT without an interchange, with the section of road west to Southwest 127th Avenue acknowledged as lying off the

Florida State Highway System The State Highway System of the U.S. state of Florida comprises the roads maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) or a toll authority. The components are referred to officially as state roads, abbreviated as SR. His ...

. East of the HEFT underpass, SR 986 leaves Kendale Lakes and enters the

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

proper, cutting across its northwestern corner. Sunset Drive first passes a small shopping district and then goes between two residential neighborhoods. As SR 986 approaches Southwest 107th Avenue (SR 985), east of the HEFT, the road enters another shopping district. Once past SR 985, Sunset Drive almost-immediately crosses the

Snapper Creek The Snapper Creek is a creek in the U.S. state of Florida that drains out of the Everglades into Biscayne Bay at Biscayne National Park. It is a long creek south of Downtown Miami, running through the suburbs of Kendall and Coral Gables in m ...

Canal and enters the eponymous

Sunset Sunset, also known as sundown, is the daily disappearance of the Sun below the horizon due to Earth's rotation. As viewed from everywhere on Earth (except the North and South poles), the equinox Sun sets due west at the moment of both the spr ...

. SR 986 then passes a mixture of houses, strip malls, commercial services and churches for the next , whereupon it crosses a

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

railroad and passes under the

Don Shula Expressway Don, don or DON and variants may refer to: Places *County Donegal, Ireland, Chapman code DON *Don (river), a river in European Russia *Don River (disambiguation), several other rivers with the name * Don, Benin, a town in Benin * Don, Dang, a vi ...

(SR 874) without an interchange. After another of strip malls, SR 986 crosses

Galloway Road Galloway Road, also known as West 87th Avenue, is a north–south route through the western areas of suburban Miami-Dade County, Florida, from the Black Point area south of Cutler Bay almost to the Broward County line north of Miami Lakes. It ex ...

(SR 973) and enters the community of Glenvar Heights. East of Galloway Road, SR 986 gains a leafy residential character, reaching the

Palmetto Expressway Palmetto (meaning "little palm") may refer to: Palms Several small palms in the Arecaceae (palm tree) family: *in the genus ''Sabal'': **Bermuda palmetto, ''Sabal bermudana'' **Birmingham palmetto, ''Sabal'' 'Birmingham' **Dwarf, or bush palme ...

(SR 826) interchange after . SR 986 carries on east through more leafy neighborhoods for another . Here, the SR 986 designation stops at Southwest 69th Avenue, the boundary between Glenvar Heights and the incorporated city of

. Like at its western terminus, the FDOT inventory recognises Sunset Drive as far east as Red Road (approximately ) as lying off the State Highway System.

Eastern section

Sunset Drive continues east from SR 986's eastern terminus through leafy neighborhoods of western South Miami. The road's character changes once it passes Southwest 63rd Avenue, as Sunset Drive begins to enter South Miami's

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the " cit ...

, passing by low-rise apartment buildings, multi-storeyed office complexes, and the South Miami Hospital. At Southwest 62nd Avenue, eastbound motorists on Sunset Drive wishing to head north along US 1 are encouraged by signage to detour along it, while Sunset Drive continues east for through the civic heart of South Miami, including a section of road paved with red brick near the city hall. The road then passes under the elevated

Metrorail METRORail is the light rail system in Houston, Texas (United States). In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of . METRORail ranks as the second most-traveled light rail system in the Southern United States and the 12th ...

tracks, just to the south of South Miami Metrorail station, and immediately meets the South Dixie Highway (US 1) at an oblique intersection. East of US 1, Sunset Drive scales down to become an undivided two-laned shopping street for the next two blocks, reaching Red Road (Southwest 57th Avenue) after . On the other side, Sunset Drive leaves South Miami and forms the boundary between

, to the north, and an unincorporated section of Miami-Dade County to the south. After passing between shops on the northern side of the road and houses on the southern side, Sunset Drive enters an opulent, leafy residential neighborhood, eventually losing its kerbing, and crossing entirely into Coral Gables about later. After about , Sunset Drive terminates at

Cartagena Plaza Cartagena or Carthagena may refer to: Places Chile *Cartagena, Chile, a commune in Valparaíso Region Colombia *Cartagena, Colombia, a city in the Bolívar Department, the largest city with this name **Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cartagena, an ...

, a

traffic circle A roundabout is a type of circular intersection or junction in which road traffic is permitted to flow in one direction around a central island, and priority is typically given to traffic already in the junction.''The New Shorter Oxford Eng ...

that also features

LeJeune Road State Road 953 (SR 953), locally known as Le Jeune Road (pronounced "Luh-JOO-n"), is a long north–south street in Miami-Dade County, Florida running a few miles west of central Miami from U.S. Route 1 in Coral Gables to State Road 916 in ...

's southern terminus and

Old Cutler Road Old Cutler Road is an off-grid plan, main northeast–southwest road running south of downtown Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. Route description The northern terminus is Cocoplum Circle at the edge of the Coral Gables Wat ...

's northeastern terminus.

History

In 1996, the

Florida State Legislature The Florida Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. State of Florida. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of an upper chamber, the Senate, and a lower chamber, the House of Representatives. Article III, Section 1 of the Florida Const ...

passed a resolution renaming SR 986 as

Sunset Drive. Until 1997, its eastern terminus was three blocks further to the east of US 1 at Red Road, to intersect with a since-truncated SR 959 on the South Miami-

boundary.

Major intersections

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sunset Drive Roads in Miami-Dade County, Florida