By Holly Baltz
Imagine Atlantic Avenue, the main street of Delray Beach, when it didn’t reach the Atlantic Ocean.
That was the case around the turn of the 20th century as prominent families from the mainland built summer homes and settlers farmed land near the Orange House of Refuge on the barrier island.
The only way back and forth was two flat-bottom barges crossing the freshly dredged Florida East Coast Canal, now the Intracoastal Waterway.
A large barge ferried horses, wagons and produce across the waterway, and a smaller barge took people and supplies.
By 1911, the town of Delray had grown to 250 residents, with Henry Flagler’s railroad bringing more visitors and settlers. Atlantic Avenue was paved with rocks from Swinton Avenue to the canal. The road had become a fledgling commercial strip.
That year, a hand-cranked wooden swing bridge connected the mainland to the island.When a boat came, the bridge would swing out horizontally to let the vessel pass.
Little boys liked to use it as a diving platform, “walking on the pulley wires and diving from the top of the posts into the canal,” according to a 2000 application to put the bridge on the Delray Beach local historic register.
The town of Delray on the mainland was incorporated in 1911. On the other side, the town of Delray Beach would be incorporated in 1923 for a short time before they merged and took the island’s name in 1927.
Summer beach houses
The Sundy family spent summers on the island because it was cooler than their place on Swinton Avenue, now the Sundy House (temporarily closed for renovations), said Kayleigh Howald, archivist at the Delray Beach Historical Society. John Sundy was Delray’s first mayor.
Some of Sundy’s children recalled fun on the beach in the early 1900s, according to a 1986 South Florida Sun Sentinel story.
They also recounted moments of terror riding the barge when John’s infant daughter, Daisy, fell off the boat and sank. Luckily it wasn’t far to retrieve her, as the waterway was but 5 feet deep. She would live to age 91.
Others spent time at the beach, including pineapple factory manager J.W. Acton, one of the town’s first aldermen. Capt. Steve Andrews and his wife, Annie, kept the Orange House of Refuge, which provided shelter for shipwreck survivors, until it closed in 1896. It was another house on the island.
Swing bridge problems
It wasn’t long before the bridge had problems.
On a Wednesday afternoon in July 1916, a truck loaded with pineapples fell through the bridge and rested in the canal, according to a Palm Beach Post story.
Rex Anderson and Thomas Young narrowly escaped with their lives, only because the rear end had headed into the water first. “A large gang of men” converged on the bridge to extract the truck from the water and repair the bridge, which months earlier had been fortified for heavier traffic. Still, it wasn’t enough for the 4-ton truck.
“The swing bridge had become a travel menace and for months bore the sign ‘Unsafe,’” the historic register application said, quoting a Post story.
The bridge flat-out collapsed into the water in 1917 when the bridge tender attempted to open it. It had gone from an “annoyance” prompting monthly discussion by county commissioners to one in need of immediate action, according to a Post story in June of that year.
In August 1918, a new wooden bridge was built and is “admired by all who see it,” according to a story in the Florida Times-Union.
U.S. President Warren G. Harding passed through the bridge in 1921, waving to well-wishers gathered on the shore.
Boom brings new bridge
The real estate boom arrived around 1925, making Delray the largest town between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, according to the historical society. Land auctions were held daily as new subdivisions rose up.
Farmland was developed. Sidewalks were paved. Bonds were issued for water and sewer lines.
Delray built a new high school and gymnasium, new city hall and a city golf course. Several resort hotels were constructed.
And for the wealthiest residents, a yacht basin was constructed along the canal near the bridge.
Local brochures promoted Delray Beach as the “Ocean City,” saying the ocean was closer to the center of town than in any other town or city in America, according to the Florida State Archives.
It was time for a new bridge to that ocean. State bonds paid $60,000 for the structure. The wood and concrete double lift bridge opened in 1926. It featured double sidewalks and was 60 feet wide for traffic.
It would last 25 years.
The GIs come home
Delray Beach began to thrive again after World War II.
The number of building permits hit record levels, the historic register application stated. The tourist population swelled. And most important, the federal government widened and deepened the canal, leading to County Commission and City Council discussions.
What emerged was the decision in 1947 that Delray Beach needed two new bridges — an Atlantic Avenue replacement and a new one at Northeast Eighth Street, now George Bush Boulevard, named after former President George H.W. Bush.
Merchants banded together to push the replacement first, arguing that it would affect business. Property owners got together and pushed for the Eighth Street bridge, saying the town needed two bridges and building a temporary replacement for Atlantic Avenue would cost more. They also argued that two bridges made for easier evacuation from a hurricane.
County Commissioner C.Y. Byrd heard all of them out. He promised to get a bill before the Florida Legislature for both bridges, including an election so voters could decide about the extra bridge. The bill providing money for both was successful as was the vote for Eighth Street.
As for the Atlantic Avenue bridge, businesses on the island expressed concern that customers wouldn’t endure the hassle of a detour to Eighth Street.
In September 1950, a contract for a little more than $400,000 was awarded to Cleary Bros. to build the bridge of concrete and steel once the steel needed was available.
Cleary Bros. was a West Palm Beach general contractor that operated from 1919 until the late 1970s. The bridge would be fabricated by the Nashville Bridge Co. and delivered to Delray Beach. In Palm Beach County, the Nashville Bridge Co. had fabricated the Royal Park and Flagler Memorial bridges that connect West Palm Beach to Palm Beach, and the Boynton Beach and Camino Real bridges.
The Clearys had done work on Morrison Field (now President Donald J. Trump International Airport) and Boca Raton airfield. They also built the double bascule Singer Island bridge, which was later replaced with a fixed span, the Camino Real bridge and the Lantana bridge.
Construction on the Atlantic Avenue span didn’t start until a year later, partially because of a steel strike in New York. It opened Nov. 10, 1952, without County Commissioner Ben Sundy, who had been scheduled to be master of ceremonies. He was one of John Sundy’s children who had frolicked on the beach. His mother, Elizabeth, a pioneer, had died.
Daisy Sundy Earls, Ben’s daughter who had lived through the mishap off the barge, would later reminisce to The Coastal Star in 2013 about the days when her father would make breakfast on his camping stove and her aunts would light bonfires on the beach. She also recalled how soldiers on horseback kept watch for German submarines during World War II.
Like her grandfather, her father’s name stuck with Delray Beach. It’s on the same vibrant commercial boulevard, Atlantic Avenue. But Ben Sundy Memorial Highway heads in the other direction — from the city limits west to Florida’s Turnpike.
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