Treasure Island Causeway, part of County Road 150, is a series of three bridges (the outer ones fixed, the middle one a bascule drawbridge) crossing Boca Ciega Bay between Treasure Island and St. Petersburg in Pinellas County, Florida. The bridge is owned and maintained by the City of Treasure Island, which used to charge all motorists $1.00 toll, until June, 2006, when the first span of the bridge was reopened with no toll booth. Residents of two St. Petersburg waterfront communities (Causeway Isles and Yacht Club Estates) used to pay a $10 annual road tax to the City of Treasure Island to help support road and median maintenance. That tax was eliminated in the spring of 2007. Treasure Island's ownership of the causeway in St. Petersburg was part of a land agreement entered into when these two cities were born: St. Petersburg's founding fathers purchased the Municipal Beach on the shores of the neighboring Gulf of Mexico community, Treasure Island, outside its own city limits to ensure that residents would have direct access to the Gulf of Mexico for generations to come. The western terminus is an intersection with Gulf Road (SR 699) in Treasure Island.
In 1939, Treasure Island Causeway was first opened to traffic. It quickly became a popular route to the Pinellas County barrier islands for beach getaways. In 2002, an engineering study revealed that all three bridges have become structurally deficient; construction on the West and East bridge started in late 2003 and was completed in October 2004. Three months later, construction of the new drawbridge began.
On January 3, 2006, the drawbridge closed for several months due to a bridge replacement project. One half (leaf) of the drawbridge reopened to vehicular traffic on June 10, 2006. Construction was completed and the new Treasure Island Causeway was dedicated in ceremonies held on August 25, 2007.
Famous quotes containing the words treasure, island and/or causeway:
“Love was as subtly catched, as a disease;
But being got it is a treasure sweet,
Which to defend is harder than to get:
And ought not be prophaned on either part,
For though ‘tis got by chance, ‘tis kept by art.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Unto a life which I call natural I would gladly follow even a will-o’-the-wisp through bogs and sloughs unimaginable, but no moon nor firefly has shown me the causeway to it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)