Florida State Road A1A

State Road A1A (FL A1A, also called A1A, or The A1A) is a north-south Florida State Road that runs along the Atlantic Ocean, from Bertha Street in Key West at the southern tip of Florida, to FL 200 in Fernandina Beach, just south of Georgia on Amelia Island. The highway turns westward inland until it ends at US 1/US 23/US 301 in Callahan. It is the main road through most oceanfront towns. Part of FL A1A is designated the A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Byway, a National Scenic Byway. A portion of A1A that passes through Volusia County is designated the Ormond Scenic Loop and Trail, a Florida Scenic Highway. It is also called the Indian River Lagoon Scenic Highway from State Road 510 at Wabasso Beach to U.S. Route 1 in Cocoa. A1A is famous worldwide as a center of beach culture in the United States, a scenic coastal route through most Atlantic coastal cities and beach towns, including the unique tropical coral islands of the Florida Keys. A1A also serves as a major thoroughfare through Miami Beach and other south Florida coastal cities.

Other than FL A1A Alternate (now FL 811, CR 707, FL 732, and an extension of FL 842), only two other Florida state roads have begun with a letter: FL A19A (now a loop of FL 693–FL 699–FL 682 near St. Petersburg), and FL G1A (now FL 300).

The road was designated as State Road 1 in the 1945 renumbering, mostly replacing the former State Road 140 designation. The number reflected its location in the new grid as the easternmost major north–south road. About a year and a half later, in November 1946, the State Road Board resolved to renumber the route due to confusion with the parallel U.S. Highway 1. The new designation, A1A, was chosen to keep the number 1 in its place in the grid.

The East Coast Greenway, a system of trails that connects Maine to Florida, travels along sections of State Road A1A. Like the Historical U.S. Route 66, FL A1A is one of the United States' most famous roads and highways, and is famous for running closely parallel along the coasts, some of the other ones are Interstate 101 (which runs along the Atlantic Coast from Savannah, Georgia to Edison, New Jersey), California State Route 1 (which runs along California's Pacific Coast from Dana Point to Leggett), and Interstate 1 (which does the same, but from Dana Point, California to Grant Pass in Oregon). State Road A1A is also designated as an All-American Road.

A1A stands for Atlantic 1 Alternate. Unfortunately the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) did not create the name when the road number was planned to change, nor did any notable or anonymous people from Florida's Atlantic Coast. The name is also mentioned by five characters from Intertropolis & Routeville in the episode with the same name ("Atlantic 1 Alternate"), where Interstate 48 and U.S. Route 86 are on a scenic summer vacation in Florida driving along State Road A1A southbound from Fernandina Beach all the way down to Key West and then they took northbound all the way back to Fernandina Beach. The signs along FL A1A shows that the highway is called "Atlantic 1 Alternate", but is still not named by the officials according to the character A1A, who is the one that he put up 13 signs along the highway in each counties in the Atlantic Coast that says "A1A stands for Atlantic 1 Alternate".

Route description

Indian River to Volusia County

State Road A1A in Daytona Beach.looking south.

History

See also: Florida State Road 1

Pre-1945 alignment

Prior to the 1945 renumbering, the route that became FL 1 had the following numbers:

• FL 182 from Miami to Miami Beach
• FL 140 from Miami Beach to Dania Beach
• FL 178 from Dania Beach to Dania
• FL 177 from downtown Fort Lauderdale east to the Atlantic Ocean
• FL 140 from the Atlantic Ocean in Fort Lauderdale to Palm Beach
• FL 305 from Palm Beach to West Palm Beach
• FL 25 from Palm Beach to West Palm Beach
• FL 196 from Lake Park to south of Jupiter
• FL 176 from North Palm Beach to Jupiter
• FL 200 from south of Jupiter to Jupiter
• FL 140 from Jupiter to Stuart
• FL 140 from north of Stuart to Jensen Beach
• FL 224 from Jensen Beach east to the Atlantic Ocean
• Unnumbered from the Atlantic Ocean east of Jensen Beach to the Martin/St. Lucie County line
• FL 332 from the Martin/St. Lucie County line to the Atlantic Ocean east of Fort Pierce
• FL 559 from the Martin/St. Lucie County line to Fort Pierce
• FL 162 from the Atlantic Ocean east of Fort Pierce to Fort Pierce
• FL 140 north of Fort Pierce
• FL 559 from Fort Pierce to Vero Beach
• FL 140 from Vero Beach to near Canaveral Harbor
• FL 252 from Vero Beach to Wabasso Beach
• FL 273 from near Canaveral Harbor to north of Canaveral
• FL 140 from north of Canaveral to New Smyrna Beach
• FL 119 southwest of Titusville Beach
• FL 140 from Ponce Inlet to St. Augustine
• FL 21 in Daytona Beach
• FL 468 in Ormond Beach
• FL 140 from St. Augustine to Jacksonville

Initial alignment

FL 1, the original designation of FL A1A after the 1945 renumbering.

FL 1 was defined in the 1945 renumbering as:

• From the intersection of 13th Street and FL 5 in Miami east along 13th Street and across the 13th Street Causeway (now called the MacArthur Causeway) to Miami Beach, then northerly along the Ocean Route via Surfside and Hallandale to a point on FL 5 in Dania Beach.
• From the intersection of East Las Olas Boulevard and FL 5 in Ft. Lauderdale, east along East Las Olas Blvd.; then across New River Sound, then northerly via Deerfield Beach – Boca Raton – Lake Worth to a point on FL 5 in West Palm Beach.
• Also from the intersection of Southern Blvd. and FL 5 in West Palm Beach east across Lake Worth Lagoon to a junction with FL 1 in Palm Beach.
• From the intersection of Park Ave. and FL 5 in Lake Park, west on Park Ave. to 10th St., thence northerly via Jupiter to a junction with FL 5 in Stuart.
• From a point on FL 5 north of St. Lucie River in Stuart, then northeasterly via Jensen and across the Indian River, then northwesterly to a junction with FL 5 in Ft. Pierce.
• From an intersection with FL 5 in Ft. Pierce northerly to a junction with FL 605, thence easterly across the Indian River, thence northerly via Vero Beach, Melbourne Beach, Cocoa Beach, Canaveral, and Titusville Beach to a junction with FL 5 in New Smyrna Beach.
• Also a leg running northwesterly from a point on FL 1 approximately two miles south of Titusville Beach to a junction with FL 402 approximately one mile west of Titusville Beach in Brevard County.
• From a point approximately nine miles south of Daytona Beach northwesterly via Daytona Beach, Ormond, and Flagler Beach to a junction with FL 5 in St. Augustine.
• Also at the intersection of FL 5 and FL 600, east on Volusia Ave., then north on North Beach St., then east on a bridge across the Halifax River and on Broadway to a junction with FL 1, all in Daytona Beach.
• Also at the intersection of Granada Ave. and FL 5, east on Granada Ave. across the Halifax River to a junction with FL 1 – all in Ormond.
• From the intersection of May St. and FL 5 in St. Augustine, northeasterly along May St. and across the North River to Vilano Beach, then northerly via Ponte Vedra Beach – Jacksonville Beach to the city limits of Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach, then west along Atlantic Blvd. to a junction with FL 5 in Jacksonville.

Florida State Road System