John Ringling Causeway (Sarasota, Florida) | bridge

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Bridge in Sarasota named after John Ringling, the circus pioneer.

In an interview by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 1959, James A. Mortland, the engineer hired by John Ringling, said that Ringling ordered that the bridge be designed to last for 20 years and no more. It actually lasted 34 years. Mortland also revealed that the bridge represented the first construction project of any size in which oyster shell concrete was used. The concrete was used on the caps, slide-rails guards and hand-rails. High grade concrete was not used because it could not easily be obtained from sources from the north.

Ringling drove his green Rolls-Royce over the new bridge on January 1, 1926. Official notice of the original bridge's opening was not taken until January 10, 1926, when real estate brokers promoting developments on St. Armands and Longboat Key established free bus service over the causeway. The causeway was opened to the public February 7, 1926. Ringling presented the bridge to the city as a gift June 13, 1927 and it was accepted January 31, 1928. At the time it was stated that the causeway had cost $750,000.

For more information about this bridge, please visit the floridahistoryalive website, and click on the Journals of Yesteryear section.