A-1-A: Florida state road with national status

 

Elliott Family on A1A in Palm Beach 1960
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory/Barron, C

By Jane Feehan 

Officially designated a state road in 1945, A-1-A or Atlantic 1 Alternate extends from Fernandina Beach to Key West, Florida. Numbering of the original roads included in this highway were replaced by the A-1-A designation in 1946. The longest highway it replaced was State Road 140.

Though not a continuous road, A-1-A runs parallel and close to much of state’s Atlantic seaboard, providing one of its most scenic vistas. A portion of it—from Ponte Vedra Beach to Flagler Beach—is among 15 roads in the contiguous 48 states designated by the federal government as a Scenic and Historic Coastal Byway. Florida can boast two such designations with the Big Bend Scenic Highway along the Gulf Coast as the other. State A-1-A includes some of the first paved road along Florida's east coast – Dixie Highway completed in 1915.

(see: https://janeshistorynook.blogspot.com/2020/08/carl-fisher-links-florida-to-nation.html).

The Florida Department of Transportation established the Florida Scenic Highways Program in 1996 to showcase its roads to “enhance the overall travel experience in Florida.” Currently, it lists 27 state-designated scenic highways, six of them federally National Scenic Byways and two—the A-1-A segment mentioned above and the Florida Keys Scenic Highway—designated All-American Roads.

A1A (Atlantic Boulevard) circa 1960
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

State Road A-1-A runs through much of Florida’s east coast barrier islands; many of the bridges it crosses to these islands were built after World War II. This scenic road goes through Palm Beach island offering views of its renowned beachside mansions. It runs for 32 miles in Broward County, miles with unobstructed beach views in Fort Lauderdale. In Miami Beach A-1-A is also Collins Avenue.

 Sources:

New York Times, Dec. 14, 1986

Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 20, 2000.

https://floridascenichighways.com/about-us/

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/byways

https://www.fdot.gov/designsupport/highwaybeautification/scenichighways

https://scenica1a.org/

https://floridascenichighways.com/our-byways/southern-region/broward-county-a1a-scenic-highway/

 

 

Tags: Florida transportation, Florida tourism, Florida roads, Florida history