The Covered Bridge of Coral Springs

 

For the ‘ol timers in Florida’s Coral Springs community, memories of long past are only 30 or so years, as the history of Coral Springs is very short. The city was only established a few decades ago and there has not been as significant of a landmark since the Covered Bridge located on 95th Street south of Wiles Road. It is here that you will find the first evidence of this town’s civilization dating back to 1963 when it was no more than a few buildings , a big swamp and a piece of the Everglades. 
Most of the land that is now Coral Springs was reclaimed, since the land was so low and swampy. Coral Ride Properties, the original land  developer dug deep into the ground to reclaim good coral sandy material to be used as land fill. These excavations filled with natural fresh ground water from the Everglades and produced the canals and lakes that are all over southern Florida. In fact, most of South Florida is filled in the same way. The covered bridge spans across one of these canals. According toauthur Stuart B. Melver in his book Coral Springs, the first twenty-five years. The side panels of the bridge display ads placed by the American Snuff Company at the request of Coral Ridge Properties. They advertise Bull of the Woods chewing tobacco, and Peach Snuff obviously products of that era. Vegetation has grown up against the west side of this bridge but the banner sign can still be seen . The picture below is the view looking towards Wiles Road (North).What’s even more interesting is that the road through this bridge goes only to a few houses and ends in a cul-de-sac. There is a sign stating ‘Welcome to Coral Springs ‘ is present on the North Side and one that says ‘Hurray Back to Coral Springs’ is on the South side. In fact, this bridge use to be at the city limits when a dirt road connected Coral Springs to the northern wilderness. (Thank you Lynn and Mike! for the info!). If anyone has any other information about this bridge please email it to coveredbridge@www.rfcj.com or post it our the Town Hall.