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Bridge Heights: This is a very popular topic and it doesn’t seem to be posted anywhere else, so I’m including it here.
Cape Coral Bridge heights vary from about 8 to 11.25 feet. The listed heights are described as the bridge heights ‘at high maximum water level’ so you can have a bit more clearance than the numbers indicate. The maps lower on this page will go over each of them.
Please note a common misconception here is that one will not be able to fit a decent size boat through the bridges. This is often incorrect. Of course if you are talking about a 40 foot vessel with a flying bridge, that will not be possible behind a 10 foot bridge. But 26+/- footers, boats with center consoles, with t-tops, certain cabin cruisers, and many others are routinely found behind the bridges. You may have to drop radar antennas, or bring down the fishing poles momentarily, but consider that many of the best neighborhoods are behind the bridges, as they were left undeveloped until more recent years. Also, the majority of the widest canals (in the SW corner of the city) are all behind bridges. By comparison you will pay significant sums for the wide, sailboat access canals, so keep your options open as much as possible when looking for the right property.
Another item to note is that boat size needed is often overestimated by buyers not familiar with the area waters. This is nothing like the East Coast of Florida where the seas are rougher and a bigger vessel is needed! The Gulf of Mexico is usually pretty calm, and there are many miles of back bays, rivers, etc. Another benefit of the smaller boats is that you can pull up very close to the shore at most all area beaches, whereas a larger vessel would inhibit your ability to do so. It also means easier parking at all the areas waterfront restaurants. The most popular fishing boats seem to be 24-26 foot Grady Whites, Robalos, or similar. For cruising, a 22-26 foot Bayliner or Hurricane deck boat are frequent choices.
The best way to review the bridge heights is via maps of their locations, so let’s now go over those for each section of Cape Coral which offers Gulf access:
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This map details out the bridge heights of each of the bridges in SW and SE Cape Coral and the corresponding clearance of that particular bridge. Gulf access bridges are indicated in Red. Ignore those falling within the darker shaded out areas though, where bridges are indicated in a baby blue color. Those are freshwater canal bridges and offer no Gulf access. Also note, because the pathway out from some of the Gulf access locations can be rather complicated we’ll cover that in more detail in an upcoming section of this guide. But for starters, take note of the locations and heights of these Gulf access bridges in red below:
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