Work Began on Collins Bridge in 1912

Construction for the Collins Bridge commenced on July 22, 1912. The bridge was completed and celebrated its grand opening on June 12, 1913.

Cover: Front page of the Miami Herald on July 21, 1912. Courtesy of the Miami Herald.

On July 22, 1912, work began on the Collins bridge to connect Miami to the future Miami Beach. The headline in the Miami Herald, on July 21, 1912, announced the start of the bridge as follows: “Work Will Start Tomorrow on Bridge to Cross the Bay, Connecting Miami with the New Collins Beach Resort.” The future municipality of Miami Beach had yet to be incorporated and given its name.

The headline also declared that, when it was completed, it will be the longest bridge in the United States with its distance traveling more than two and a half miles, or 13,000 feet to be exact. The work would require a million and a half feet of lumber, 3,000 spiles, 2,000 barrels of cement, and tons of nails and drift bolts. It was originally estimated to cost John Collins $75,000 to complete the work.

Figure 1: Transporting materials from Collins Canal in early 1913. Courtesy of Florida State Archives.

Within twenty-four hours after Collins hired George F. Cook Company to do the job, work began assembling the labor and materials. Cook secured a 3,000-pound hammer to drive the spiles into the bay bottom to anchor the bridge. The wooden structure was designed by J.T. Conklin who also served as supervisor of the project. The architect’s estimate was that the bridge would require roughly between four to six months to complete the work.

The construction crew used material extracted while digging the Collins Canal as fill for the roadbed on the Miami Beach side. However, as work progressed during the second half of 1912, there were several obstacles that halted the project to a standstill by the winter of 1912.

Figure 2: Work on the Collins Bridge in early 1913. Courtesy of Florida State Archives.

One of the biggest issues was that Collins and his contractors did not anticipate the cost to prepare the pilings to support the bridge. They needed to provide a jacket of cement at the base of each piling to ensure proper stability. The cost to lay cement below the surface cost a significant amount of money beyond what Collins and his team anticipated. Although Collins secured a loan from the Bank of Bay Biscayne for what he thought would cover the full project, he realized that his original estimate was off by a significant amount.

Collins was only able to complete the bridge part of the way to the future Miami Beach by November of 1912. It was considered “a skeleton in the bay” by the man who eventually became the savior of the project.

Construction resumed when Carl Fisher decided to invest in the bridge in exchange for land. Fisher made a lot of money when he sold his company to Union Carbide a few years earlier, and he was anxious to find a new project to invest in and occupy his time. Fisher loaned Collins $50,000 to complete the bridge in exchange for roughly 200 acres of land on the future Miami Beach. With Fisher’s financial assistance, the bridge was completed and eventually opened on June 12, 1913. The wooden bridge would last into the mid-1920s when it was replaced by the Venetian Causeway which opened in 1926.

Figure 3: Map of Collins Bridge in 1919. Courtesy of Florida State Archives.

Related Content:

An Unlikely Partnership – Fisher Meets Collins

Resources:

• Miami Herald: “Work Will Start Tomorrow on Bridge to Cross the Bay, Connecting Miami with the New Collins Beach Resort”, July 21, 1912.

• Book: “Miami Beach” by Howard Kleinberg.