Barrier islands are, by their very nature, separated from the neighborhoods, business districts and communities of the mainland. To get to the paradises of Longboat Key, Lido Key, Anna Maria Island, Siesta Key and the like, you’ll need to get on a boat or cross a bridge.
More than 100 years after John Ringling led a circus parade across the then newly built, timber-supported Ringling Causeway, a concrete fixed-span bridge that graces most Sarasota postcards now supports residents and visitors who are headed to or from the barrier islands.
The 65-foot-tall illuminated concrete bridge represents the modern preference for bridge design. It replaced a drawbridge built in the ’50s, one of many drawbridges built in the region during that era. Today, those decades-old bascule bridges are becoming more expensive to maintain and repair. Some, like the Cortez Bridge, are set to be replaced. And, just like the decision made in the early 2000s for the Ringling bascule bridge’s replacement, a high-level fixed bridge is the chosen design…