Florida State Road 29

North end of State Road 29

State Road 29 begins at an intersection with U.S. Route 41 (Tamiami Trail) in the small community of Carnestown, located just 4 miles north of Everglades City. From there, it travels north along the western edge of the Big Cypress National Preserve and the eastern edge of the Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Forest, which the road borders until it reaches Interstate 75 (Alligator Alley) at Miles City.

Florida State Road 29, just north of US Route 41 in Carnestown.

North of I-75, State Road 29 borders the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge to the west and continues to border the Big Cypress National Preserve up to a point just south of Sunniland.

SR 29 turns west briefly and back north through the city of Immokalee, a small farming town with large migrant populations. Just north of Immokalee, SR 29 intersects with State Road 82, which travels west to Fort Myers. SR 29 continues due north through more agricultural areas until it reaches the city of LaBelle, where it runs through the city center and intersects State Road 80, a transpeninsular route connecting Fort Myers and West Palm Beach.

After crossing the Caloosahatchee River on a small drawbridge, SR 29 turns northeast and continues to its northern terminus at an intersection with US 27 (unsigned SR 25), just south of Palmdale.

A Florida State Road 29 sign located in Miles City, just south of Interstate 75.

State Road 29 was extended from Immokalee to Everglades City in the 1920s around the same time as the construction of the Tamiami Trail. Its construction was championed by Barron Collier as a land connection to Everglades City (the county seat of Collier County at the time).[2] The route was designated State Road 164 until 1945, when it was changed to State Road 29 as part of a statewide renumbering.[3] State Road 29 was extended from Everglades City to Chokoloskee in 1956 upon the completion of a causeway across Chokoloskee Bay[4]

South of Immokalee, SR 29 ran alongside the now-abandoned Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Haines City Branch from Harrisburg (just south of Palmdale) to Everglades City, which was also built in the 1920s. Part of this line was once the Deep Lake Railroad, which was once owned by Barron Collier. The railroad was removed from Sunniland south to Everglades City in 1957, and the rest of it was removed in the 1980s.[5]

Before the Florida Department of Transportation removed a large number of State Roads from its list for state control and maintenance, SR 29 continued south through the towns of Jerome, Copeland, and then meeting Everglades City just outside the Everglades National Park. Now designated County Road 29 north of Everglades City and County Road 29A south of it, the historic southern terminus of SR 29 is in Chokoloskee, on Chokoloskee Island within the National Park.

When plans were made to upgrade Alligator Alley to carry Interstate 75 in 1973, State Road 29 was not initially planned to have an interchange with the freeway due to environmental concerns. This decision was reversed in 1989 during construction of I-75 and interchange ramps were included after steps were taken to protect the endangered Florida panther.[6]

Media related to Florida State Road 29 at Wikimedia Commons

• Florida Route Log (SR 29)