| SR-A1A | |||
| Get started | Key West | ||
| End | callahan | ||
| Length | 339 mi | ||
| Length | 545 km | ||
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The State Route A1A or State Road A1A is a state route in the U.S. state of Florida. The road forms the state’s primary coastal route from Key West to Callahan near the Georgia border, following the Atlantic coastline. It is the main street of numerous seaside resorts on the route and therefore almost the entire route of the State Route A1A lies within the built-up area. The road begins in Key West, but travels only a short distance here, then begins again in Miami and then, with a few short breaks, follows the Atlantic coast north, past Cape Canaveral, past Daytona Beach and then around Jacksonville. State Route A1A parallels US 1 and Interstate 95 for a short distance everywhere. State Route A1A is 545 kilometers long.
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Travel directions
The State Road A1A in Key West.
Key West
State Road A1A begins in Key West. This is Florida’s southernmost state highway and the southernmost numbered highway in the 48 contiguous states. The road forms an urban highway through the grid of the city of Key West. Where US 1 runs across the north of the island, State Road A1A does so through the south, past the Key West International Airport. The road here is a four-lane road that partly runs directly along the sea.
Miami Region
The State Road A1A in Fort Lauderdale.
State Road A1A then begins again in Miami as an extension of Interstate 395 and continues over the MacArthur Causeway to Miami Beach. This is where the iconic route along the entire array of seaside resorts along the Atlantic coast begins. The road varies from two to six lanes and often has an endless row of palm trees. Between Miami Beach and Dania Beach, the road often passes just behind the front row of seaside hotels. Near Fort Lauderdale the road is briefly interrupted and traffic has to go via US 1.
Also between Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, the road often runs just behind the front row of hotels. As a result, there are continuous high-rise buildings along the road. A lagoon separates the coastal islands or peninsulas from the mainland, where US 1 and I-95 parallel more through traffic. In this coastal region, the road has the necessary bascule bridges over waterways that connect the lagoons with the Atlantic Ocean.
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East Coast
One of the less densely built parts of the route at Ponte Vedra Beach.
The road then alternates between more inland or directly along the sea. Particularly through Stuart, the road leads a little further inland because not all islands off the coast have a bridge connection between each other and traffic therefore has to go a little inland to reach the next island. This region is also suburbanized inland, however. Between Stuart and Fort Pierce is the first part of the road that does not run continuously through the built-up area, here is also a narrow island that is not fully built-up. At Fort Pierce one has to go back to US 1 again because of a missing bridge over the waterway.
The road then leads over barrier islands between Vero Beach and Cape Canaveral. The islands are largely built up with hotels and holiday homes, but parts have less buildings. Cape Canaveral is reached from the south, where State Road A1A is interrupted over a longer stretch because there is no main coastal road past the NASA space complex. The road only starts again 100 kilometers away at Daytona Beach. There is, however, the County Road A1A at New Smyrna Beach which has the same character but is a dead end route on a peninsula.
The road then leads through the famous resort of Daytona Beach, here as a somewhat wider urban arterial with separate lanes. This section also passes just behind the front row of beach hotels. At Flagler Beach, however, the road leads directly along the beach. The road follows the shoreline further north through St. Augustine to Jacksonville Beach. Here is a 20 kilometer long route that hardly leads through built-up areas, but through dunes and along the beach, with at most a few holiday homes.
First Coast
One then reaches the coastal region at the height of the large city of Jacksonville, also known as the First Coast. In this area, however, the road heads a little further inland, ranging from a few city blocks in Jacksonville Beach to several miles north and south. At Mayport there is a ferry service on the St. Johns River, the Mayport Ferry. To the north, the coastal region is less densely built-up. A 1.5 kilometer long bridge crosses a tidal river, after which the road turns west from Fernandina Beach, further inland. At this point there is no longer a through-coastal route and the border with Georgiaclose to. The road then continues for more than 35 kilometers inland via Yulee to Callahan. This section is located north of Jacksonville and is also numbered as State Road 200. The road intersects several U.S. Highways and Interstate 95, the only time State Road A1A intersects I-95.
History
Between 1917 and 1920, a causeway was built between Miami and Miami Beach, later called the MacArthur Causeway. In the mid-1990s this was directly connected to I-395. Miami Beach then grew into a prominent coastal town with a lot of Art Deco architecture. From the 1970s, however, many vacationers moved to the Caribbean and Miami Beach began to fall into disrepair, a place mainly used by poorer elderly people. Beginning in the 1980s, Miami Beach was revitalized, notably with the creation of Historic Districts in 1986, preserving much of the early 20th century architecture from the massive hotel construction that took place further north along the road.
In the 1950’s-60’s, huge numbers of hotels and apartment towers were built along State Road A1A, spanning almost the entire coastline from Miami to Jacksonville. As a result, the road was almost completely located within the built-up area. In many parts of the route, the road is just behind the large hotels and there is not much view of the Atlantic Ocean. In a number of places the road runs directly along the beach.
In the 1950s-60s, US 1 was also widened integrally to 2×2 lanes along the coast. This road usually runs 5-10 kilometers inland and at the time was the main north-south connection along all seaside resorts. The environment of US 1 eventually became almost completely suburbanized, from the 1960s Interstate 95 was again built parallel to US 1 for through fast traffic. This makes the distinction between the three roads: I-95 for through traffic, US 1 for city traffic and State Road A1A for local destination traffic in the seaside resorts.
The State Road A1A is interrupted at a number of points, in various places no bridges have been built between all the barrier islands and peninsulas, so that traffic has to return to US 1, which is a little further inland, and at Cape Canaveral a long section is missing. because no coastal road has been built past NASA’s space complex. The portion of State Road A1A on Key West was added later, originally starting in Miami.
Road numbering
With the 1945 renumbering, the Florida state road network was divided into a grid, with odd routes running from south to north, increasing in number from east to west. State Route 1 was Florida’s easternmost south-north route. Because the US Highways are set up in a similar grid, the State Route 1 runs parallel everywhere or even together with the US 1. To avoid confusion but still maintain the grid, State Route 1 was renumbered as State Route A1A in 1946. It is normally common that there are no US Highways and state roads with the same number, so no other number has been chosen, but simply an A has been placed before the number. This is uncommon elsewhere in the United States. The suffix A indicates an alternate route from US 1.
