Main St. Bridge

The Main Street Bridge is such a beautiful bridge at night with its hues of blue lighting it up against the St. Johns River underneath and the city’s skyline above. The view from the Southbank is one of my favorites.
What’s cool about the Main Street Bridge is that you can walk or jog across it anytime. If you’re driving, it drops you right into downtown Jacksonville with the northbound traffic that turns right on Water Street and left on Ocean Street.
Overall, it’s a useful and gorgeous bridge that only adds beauty to the city.

The Main Street bridge was the first bridge I drove over with my driving instructor in downtown Jacksonville. I had never driven downtown in Jacksonville until this day in the 80s. Anyone driving down Main Street headed toward the river knows that 3 lanes expand into 4 lanes and the two right lanes are right turn only. Having practiced this drive 1000x since then, its a no brainer, but back in the day, the first time, the instructor had to jerk, a good word for the man too, the wheel to send us back over the Main Street Bridge. Ugh, first memories of the bridge.
During the Super Bowl, the city used to have lights at the top of the span that faced North and South, these were LED lights and they used to show off the bridge nicely at night. Who knows what happened to them since, but they are gone, the bridge is old, tired, your classic Vertical Lift Bridge, it was built in 1941. This is now the oldest bridge across the St. Johns River in downtown Jacksonville. The old Acosta Bridge was the original and was built in 1921, then torn down and rebuilt in 1991 and finished in 1994.
The main street bridge was never built to handle 18-​wheelers and larger cars of today. It is a wonder how much longer it will continue to operate, but until then, be careful on the pedestrian walks, they are slippery when wet, but enjoy the feeling of being above the river 35 feet when the bridge is closed. It’s a great feeling!

If there is a bridge in town that says: «Jacksonville», then the Main St. Bridge is it. The bridge is officially named the John T. Alsop Jr. Bridge, but if you were to refer to it by that name, I guarantee that the majority wouldn’t know what you were talking about. You’d have to resort to «the blue, lift bridge in the middle of Downtown,» which is an apt description as well.
The Main St Bridge is where all Downtown firework extravaganzas are launched from, and it’s also the quickest route between the Northbank (Downtown) and the Southbank (San Marco). It gives our Downtown quite a pretty view when it is all lit up at night. Additionally, our skyline wouldn’t be the same without it. Main St Bridge, what would we do without you?

When it’s lit up at night, the Blue Bridge (my kids lovingly dubbed it that as toddlers) is spectacular. It’s wonderful for a stroll, especially at sunrise or sunset.

While having dinner at the River City Brewing Co. looking out on the river at the view of the Bridge was nice. A great view while watching the sun set.

Beautiful bridge when it’s lit up a night. This was my first time seeing a boat go under the bridge and seeing a part of the bridge being raised in the air. Alright I was excited! They raised and lowered the bridge so fast. Hey I was impressed.

Main Street Bridge, how I admired your beauty from room 628 at the Hyatt Riverfront. Whether it be morning, afternoon, or evening I enjoyed taking pics from my window. It’s amazing how many unique looks this beautiful bridge offers, but I tried to capture around a dozen photos.
So without ever crossing it’s span, I admired your majestic elegance from a far I am a fan.

Staying at the crown plaza. Requested a river view room for the night time view mostly. The lights are not on like normal. Just the tall columns are lit up. They are doing some type of construction I guess that’s why the bridge isn’t lit up all the way. It makes me pretty sad. I guess we just visited Jacksonville at the wrong time so much construction. No river walk, no water taxi…

Love this bridge!!! It’s a fun and relatively short walk. Great views of the buildings downtown and the other side of the St Johns. It’s a bit vertigo inducing and narrow, especially when a biker is coming the other way. I’m convinced that a jump is survivable and that there should be a competition for adventure seekers. YOLO!!! Maybe that’s not such a great idea but it’s still a beautiful bridge and exciting to walk over it and ponder the possiblity…

This bridge in Downtown Jacksonville is just beautiful. It’s a small bridge and it is a drawbridge. It’s short in length, not high, and takes you from the southbank to the northbank and vice versa.
The bridge is painted a blue colour and is beautiful during the daytime, but at night, it really comes alive when it is lit up in a beautiful blue colour. Check out some of the photos that have been posted of both daytime and nighttime shots of the bridge.
Because it’s a drawbridge, there is always a chance it may be raised for a boat to pass underneath and you may be stopped. Because it’s a small bridge, boats usually pass under pretty quickly, so you shouldn’t find yourself stopped for long.
The bridge is only .32 miles long and there’s a walking path on both sides of the bridge. You’ll often see people walking or jogging across the bridge. I know a lot of people who work downtown cross the bridge back and forth during lunchtime for exercise.
For a really great view of the bridge at night and to get some really amazing photos of the bridge with Downtown Jacksonville in the background, head to Friendship Fountain
or head to The Jacksonville Landing

A beautiful «blue» bridge over the river in downtown Jacksonville, a really fantastic photo op at night when it’s lit up.

This is my favorite local bridge of all. I like the pretty blue hue and it looks best lighted up at night. Sooo beautiful. Yes, this is the famous Jacksonville bridge that shows up in all the postcards right next to (what was once) the Modis building.
What most people, even some of the locals don’t know is that the real name is the John T. Alsop Bridge. I guess it’s much shorter and easier to remember Main Street Bridge. Haha.
This bridge takes you across the St Johns River from the north bank to the south bank.
The only con, as Hilary mentioned in an earlier review, is the fact that boats passing underneath hold up traffic since the bridge is so low and requires a part of it in the middle to rise to let water traffic through. I’ve gone late to work because of the darn thing before.
It’s fun to walk this bridge. You get one of the best views of town. Sparkling water beneath you and skyscrapers around. Pretty cool!
If you do the Gate River Run 15K, you’re sure to run/​walk this one as part of the route.

What’s not to like? It’s a bridge! I appreciated the easy access and signs around it, making it easier for an out of towner to get around.

This bridge is not known for its official name, the John T. Alsop Bridge, named after the mayor at the time it was built in 1941. Instead, it is known as the Main St. Bridge, as it runs directly off of Main St. in Downtown across the river over to San Marco.
This is probably the cutest bridge in all of Jacksonville. It’s low to the water and uses a lift [which can be SO ANNOYING] whenever a boat needs to pass underneath. It is painted a beautiful royal blue and is lit up at night, illuminated against the skyline and reflected off the St. Johns River.
My favorite memories of this bridge are of New Years Eve. Every year we come to this bridge to stand on its large sidewalks and watch the fireworks that go off literally right above our heads! Two barges on either side of the bridge set off a stunning fireworks display and it’s about as close as you can get to them without catching on fire. It’s magical.
People walk over this bridge all the time. It has wide sidewalks and is short and relatively flat, so it’s pedestrian friendly. The four lanes are a little narrow for vehicular purposes and always kind of make me wary of sideswiping another car or the concrete walls that line it. Hasn’t happened so far, though!
The Main St. Bridge is located right in the heart of Downtown Jacksonville and is a great tourist spot. Get a little walk in, hit up the Landing on the Downtown side and then cross it to visit the Museum of Science and History and the River City Brewing Co. on the South Bank.
One of my favorite «spots» in Jacksonville.