JUPITER US 1 BRIDGE

The Florida State Road Department constructed the first bridge across the Loxahatchee River at this location in 1926-1927. The two-lane concrete bridge had a counter-weighted drawbridge called a bascule and a live-in bridge tender. The bridge carried US Highway 1, also known in Florida as the New Dixie Highway. The new road was part of a national movement to improve and maintain roadways as automobile travel became increasingly popular. US 1 helped link the Atlantic Seaboard from Maine to Miami (and later to Key West). A replacement four-lane bridge was constructed here between 1956 and 1958. It featured 18 spans, a rare four-leaf bascule draw, and a three-story tender building. A portion of the original bridge was used as a fishing pier for decades. In 2007, the US 1 bridge was dedicated to Jupiter centenarian William Carlin White, a former Jupiter mayor, Naval intelligence officer, historian, author, and member of a prominent pioneer family. In 2022, construction began on a wider, taller bridge to provide safer passage over the Loxahatchee River and Intracoastal Waterway.