This 2009 New York Times article described the groundbreaking of a 1-mile, $81 million bridge on Florida’s Tamiami Trail highway.
It was a huge event for people who care about the Everglades. It was one more encouraging sign that the effort to restore South Florida’s ecosystem remains alive.
The bridge project raises a section of the Tamiami Trail to allow water to begin flowing into the Everglades and south to Florida Bay — much as it did before commercial development, canals and roadways deprived the Everglades of the freshwater flows that had made it one of the richest ecosystems on Earth.
The bridge symbolized the Obama administration’s determination to get cracking on the $8 billion (now $12 billion) Everglades restoration project approved by Congress in 2000. [2013 photo credit: Matt Ball]
How do you feel this once-world-class restoration project is doing these days, in 2015? Please let us know in the Comments section below.