John Ringling Causeway
View of bridge and Sarasota Bay from the Sarasota Recreational Trail
Coordinates	27°19′34″N 82°33′46″W / 27.3262°N 82.5628°W / 27.3262; -82.5628
Carries	4 lanes of SR 789 and pedestrians
Crosses	Sarasota Bay
Locale	Sarasota, Florida
Official name	John Ringling Causeway
Other name(s)	Ringling Bridge Gil Waters Bridge
Named for	John Ringling
Owner	Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)
ID number	170176
Characteristics
Design	Segmental box girder bridge
Material	Concrete
Total length	3,097.04 ft (944 m)
Width	106.35 ft (32 m)
Height	65 ft (20 m)
No. of spans	11
No. of lanes	4
Design life	75 years[1]
History
Constructed by	PCL Construction[2]
Construction start	August 2001[1]
Construction end	2003
Construction cost	$68 million
Opened	2003
Inaugurated	August 30, 2003
Rebuilt	2001
Statistics
Daily traffic	33,000 (2014)
Toll	None
Location

John Ringling Causeway (bascule bridge)
The John Ringling Causeway bascule bridge in 2003, before it was replaced by a high-level bridge.
Coordinates	27°20′N 82°34′W / 27.33°N 82.56°W / 27.33; -82.56
Characteristics
Design	Bascule
Material	Steel
Total length	2,640 ft (805 m)
Width	74 ft (23 m)
Clearance above	20 ft (6 m)
No. of lanes	4
History
Construction cost	$20 million
Opened	1959
Closed	2003

John Ringling Causeway (also known as Ringling Bridge or Gil Waters Bridge^[3]) is a bridge that extends past the Sarasota Bay, from Sarasota to St. Armands Key and Lido Key. The 65-foot-tall (20 m) bridge, built in 2003, is a segmental box girder bridge named after John Ringling, one of the founders of the Ringling Brothers Circus and resident of the Sarasota area.^[4]

History

The first bridge was built in 1925 by John Ringling, who owned large tracts of land on both Lido and Longboat Keys. He wanted to develop the islands and financed the cost of the bridge at the cost of approximately $750,000, equivalent to $13 million in 2023^[5], to connect the islands with the mainland.^[6] The ornate bridge opened for traffic on February 7, 1926. It was labeled "one of the greatest engineering accomplishments in the South” by the Sarasota Herald, which also proclaimed, “There are no words adequate with which to express our appreciation.”^[4][7] Ringling donated the bridge to the city in 1927.

Around 1950, the first bridge began to show that it could not adequately handle increased traffic to the islands. In 1951, the State Road Department opted to replace the bridge with a four-lane drawbridge, which was completed and opened to traffic in 1959. The drawbridge was built for $20 million, and the original bridge was demolished.

Around 2000, the drawbridge began to suffer the same fate as its predecessor. With the drawbridge opening as many as 18 times a day, it was unable to handle increasing amounts of traffic. To remedy the situation, construction began on the current high-span bridge in 2001. The 65-foot (20 m) tall bridge opened for traffic in 2003 for $68 million. Landscaping around the bridge was financed by private donors.^[7]