Jewfish Creek Bridge Set To Open In Fla. Keys - Who picked this bridge name anyway?

[Doug.Goodall]

Jewfish Creek Bridge Set To Open In Fla. Keys

POSTED: 5:35 pm EDT May 22, 2008


KEY LARGO, Fla. -- A $93 million bridge at the top of the Florida Keys Overseas Highway is set to open Thursday evening, part of a project to connect the roads to allow quicker evacuations and combat aggressive driving.

Officials will route traffic on the new 65-foot-high Jewfish Creek Bridge following Thursday's dedication ceremony. The occasion marks the halfway point of a six-year, $300 million project to build a new connector road, known as the 18-mile Stretch, from the South Florida mainland to Key Largo and the Keys.

Only the northbound section of the bridge will open now, but traffic will flow in both directions. The southbound lane should open in October and the rest of the bridge project, including the dismantling of an antiquated drawbridge and the removal of a short land causeway, should be completed in 2009.

When completed, the project is to feature one travel lane in each direction, divided by a concrete median barrier.

[Lance_Boyle]

1. I would guess the state's highway dept. named it.

A jewfish:

[Squatch]

3. The Jewfish (Epinephelus itajara) might be getting a new name

Distribution:
Western Atlantic: Florida, USA to southern Brazil, including the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Eastern Atlantic: Senegal to Congo. rare in Canary Islands. Eastern Pacific: Gulf of California to Peru.

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The head of the Florida Aquarium was giving his Jewish grandmother a tour when they came to the tank with the great big jewfish. It was an awkward moment.

"Grandma," said aquarium CEO Jeffery S. Swanagan, "this is, um, a large grouper."

The name "jewfish," which some find offensive, is on the way out. In a rare move, the group responsible for naming fish in the Americas is changing the common name of Florida's largest grouper species.

The American Fisheries Society wants people to call jewfish "goliath grouper."

Link

[RebelOne]

2. Probably a lot of Jewfish in the area.