Sebasitian Inlet Bridge

In 1965 this concrete bridge spanning the Sebastian Inlet opened and was considered state of the art and quickly became a design that would be utilized for decades to come across the country. If you were to take a closer look at this bridge it’s far from typical and its impact on the Environment and Eco-​system couldn’t have been imagined during its design and construction phases, but it wasn’t long before it became apparent this bridge that the locals and anyone traveling A1A came to love was an obstacle for marine birds wintering in southeast Florida and was contributing to the death of many, so many in fact that something had to be done.
Starting in 1989 a three year roadkill survey was conducted to document bridge deaths, this study showed this bridge contributed to the deaths of royal terns, brown pelicans, sandwich terns, black skimmer and countless other species that might have been considered expendable, some might say this is a small price to pay for the positive impact this bridge has made on the economy and those traveling this north south route. Most of the dead birds were about six-​months old — too young to judge safe flying heights and instinctively this fly-​way was unobstructed since the beginning of time so it was in their DNA you might say. Apparently the numbers were great enough to justify implementing preventive measures to further reduce the number of deaths of these migratory birds, the FDOT and the FDEP partnered to design a solution which included attaching 122 vertical metal poles, each measuring a little over 9 feet long, to both sides of the bridge. The silver-​colored poles were placed close together to discourage the birds from flying between them. Although a few of the poles were lost to tropical storms, hurricanes, and metal stress, the remaining poles successfully direct marine birds over and away from traffic. To show a return on their investment the deaths were estimate to have been reduced by 64 percent, so for those of you that may have noticed these poles now you know, the most common answer given when asked of their purpose is «lightening rods». For those that have never noticed, well it really doesn’t matter this is the least of what you’re missing out on.