BRADENTON BEACH – Mayor John Chappie wants to recognize the 100th anniversary of Bridge Street with a celebration.
The street was once at the foot of the bridge leading to Anna Maria Island from Cortez before a new bridge was built. The Bradenton Beach pier now stands in the footprint of the original bridge.
Chappie, a member of the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA), asked the board last month for $10,000 to purchase holiday banners to place on light poles down Bridge Street. He hopes some of the money will be used to purchase banners commemorating the 100-year anniversary of the historic commercial area. CRA members approved the funds and expressed preliminary support for the proposed celebration.
During the CRA meeting on July 6, he provided additional details on his anniversary celebration plans.
“We just are finishing up with our hundredth year of Bridge Street existing,” Chappie said, adding that Bridge Street is believed to be the longest existing commercial area on Anna Maria Island. “100 years is pretty cool.”
Chappie told the board he recently spent a couple of hours doing research at the Anna Maria Island Historical Society Museum and he couldn’t find any specific details as to exactly when the street was renamed Bridge Street, so he’s using the construction of the original Cortez Bridge, which began in 1921, as a start for the 100-year timeline.
“As the bridge was being built, a hurricane came late in 1921 and they had to rebuild what was destroyed in 1922, so we’re still within that 100-year timeframe,” he said.
Construction of the Cortez Bridge was completed in 1922, according to the book “Anna Maria Island: The Early Days, 1893-1940,” written by late Island historian Carolyne Norwood.
“The bridge from Cortez to Cortez Beach (now known as Bradenton Beach) was completed in 1922. Cortez Beach soon became the commercial center of the Island – just in time for the Florida boom and prohibition! By 1927, Cortez Beach had a population of 75. There was a village store, a gas station, the Bayside Inn (now The Bridgetender Inn), the Bath House and the popular Pagoda Dance Hall. Among the many characters were carpenters, bookkeepers, bootleggers and ladies of the night,” Norwood wrote.
This photo of the Bath House was taken in 1922 in the city then known as Cortez Beach. – Manatee Public Library Digital Collection | Submitted“The Bath House was on the Gulf beach at the end of Bridge Street. South of the Bath House stood the huge Pagoda Dance Hall. People were charged to dance and be served setups for the rum, homebrew and moonshine they bought from the locals. Weekends and holidays, as many as four hundred Model T’s a day would cross the bridge from four surrounding counties, since Cortez Beach had the only bathhouse and dance hall on the midwest coast of Florida. This was the heyday of Cortez Beach. Al Capone stayed at the Albion Inn (in Cortez) in 1928 amid rumors of his arranging for illegal rum to go to the Midwest from Cuba,” Norwood wrote.
In 1956, the original bridge was replaced with the current drawbridge, now slated to be replaced with a higher fixed-span bridge.
Chappie told the CRA members he’s already discussed with some Bridge Street business owners the prospect of hosting an anniversary celebration event in September.
“I’m putting out feelers and I’ll be reporting back,” he said.
