Before a bridge connected Marco Island to the mainland, residents and visitors depended on a ferry. From 1912 until 1938, every vehicle, visitor and shipment bound for Marco Island crossed this way.
The first vehicle swing bridge opened in 1938, providing the first road between Marco Island and the mainland through Goodland. That span was replaced in 1975 by what is now the Stan Gober Memorial Bridge.
The original two-lane span of the Judge S.S. Jolley Bridge opened in 1969 and was the second bridge connecting Marco Island to the mainland. In 2011, the second parallel span was built next to the original to provide two additional lanes. The bridge is named in honor of former Collier County Judge Seward Stokley Jolley, who served from 1935 until 1959.
All that remains
Today, all that physically remains of the ferry link to the island’s past are two iron gears, together weighing approximately 400 pounds…