As the Florida Department of Transportation prepares for renovations that are expected to shut down Jacksonville’s Main Street Bridge for six months, City Council is considering legislation that would designate the site as a historic landmark.
Ordinance 2025-0881, introduced by seven Council members and co-sponsored by three more, would express Council support to place the bridge, formally known as the John T. Alsop Bridge, on the National Register of Historic Places. Alsop served two terms as mayor, from 1923 to 1937 and from 1941 to 1945.
If passed, the bill would encourage the city’s Planning Department, the Historic Preservation Commission and Department of Public Works to collaborate with the state’s Division of Historical Resources, FDOT and preservation professionals to prepare a nomination for the bridge to the National Register.
To qualify for the National Register, a structure must be at least 50 years old and appear largely the same as it did in the past, according to the National Park Service. A structure should also be associated with significant historical events or individuals; embody architectural characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction; or yield important historic information, according to the Florida Division of Historical Resources.
The designation also helps save sites from demolition and makes them eligible for government preservation grants and tax incentives.
Matt Carlucci
Council member Matt Carlucci, one of the bill’s introducing sponsors, said recognizing the bridge was a way to honor Jacksonville’s history.
“It’s carried our citizens to work, to ballgames, to churches, to concerts. It’s a bridge that has lived so many uses for our community,” Carlucci said. “It’s a gesture of civic pride. Really, everybody loves that Main Street Bridge. This is a way to make our love affair with the bridge official.”
The bridge is set begin renovations from FDOT beginning after July 1, 2027, FDOT confirmed to the Daily Record. Renovations will include replacement of the mechanisms at the top of the towers that raise and lower the bridge deck, replacement of the existing steel open grating with a solid surface, and a fresh paint job.
A specific date has not been set for the start of construction, an FDOT spokesperson said in an email, and FDOT has not determined a timeline for construction.
Because the bridge will need to remain open to marine traffic while the raising and lowering mechanisms are replaced, it will be closed to pedestrian and vehicular traffic for about six months while the work is underway.
According to the legislation, the Florida Division of Historic Resources previously deemed the bridge eligible for the National Register of Historic Places “due to its engineering significance and contribution to Jacksonville’s mid-20th century urban expansion.”
The bridge, completed in 1941, is the only remaining movable span bridge in Downtown Jacksonville and is the largest vertical lift bridge of its kind in Florida, according to the legislation.
The bill is set for a Council vote in early 2026.