Notice the double-leaf bascule bridge spanning the Intracoastal Waterway between downtown and Anastasia Island. It forms part of State Road A1A and links downtown St. Augustine to Anastasia Island across Matanzas Bay. The bridge you see was begun in 1925 and completed in 1927, and a pair of copies of the marble Medici lions have long guarded its approaches.
Those lions were removed in February 2005 and returned in March 2011. In 1999 the United States Department of Transportation declared the bridge "structurally deficient and functionally obsolete," a judgment that sparked heated debates about its fate. A restoration plan was approved despite continued opposition, and Reynolds, Smith & Hills from nearby Jacksonville was awarded the engineering and design contract, estimated at $77 million and projected to require five years to complete.
The bridge's work and impact drew national attention: Roads & Bridges magazine named the Bridge of Lions fourth in the nation's top 10 bridges for 2010, evaluating projects on size, community impact, and challenges resolved. Before this span was built in 1925, a wooden crossing known simply as "The Bridge to Anastasia Island" or the "South Beach railroad bridge" stood here. Picture the marble Medici lions guarding this crossing between downtown and Anastasia Island.