History of A1A

Over 100 years ago, Highway A1A began as a narrow brick-paved road used to facilitate the movement north of Florida citrus and other exports. In the early 1900s, the automobile started to revoluationize the transportation industry and the future of Florida. Henry Ford completed the first production Model T in 1908 and, by 1927, his company had built and delivered around 15 million vehicles. 

The ease of travel that the automobile offered created a demand for improved roads.

River boats chugged along 120 years ago. They transported fortunes in the 1870s--fortunes in pineapples, at first!

By 1909, there were pineapple plantations on 5,000 acres along the river, and the crop totaled 1.1. million crates. Worm infestations, root rot, soil depletion, and winter freezes in 1917 and 1918 wiped out the pineapple industry.

The citrus crop flourishes today, protected by the warmth of the ocean on one side and the lagoon on the other for those groves bordering A1A on the barrier islands.