Editing Cortez, Florida (section)

==== Building of the Cortez Bridge ====
Construction on the [[Cortez Bridge]] connecting [[Anna Maria Island]] to Cortez began in 1921. Anna Maria Island was not connected to the mainland prior to this and so could only be accessed by boat. Construction on the bridge came to a halt after the [[1921 Tampa Bay hurricane|hurricane of 1921]] hit, destroying any progress that had been made on the bridge. In 1922, construction began again and the wooden bridge was completed. The wooden bridge connected [[Florida State Road 684|Cortez Road]] to [[Bradenton Beach, Florida|Bradenton Beach]]'s Bridge Street. In the 1950s, the wooden Cortez Bridge was replaced with the current concrete bridge. To prove how stable the new bridge was, elephants from [[Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus|Ringling Circus]] were brought over and paraded across the bridge for all to see.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.bradenton.com/news/local/article34903533.html |title=Building the Cortez Bridge |last=Turner |first=Halee |date=2015 |website=Bradenton Herald}}</ref>