Florida State Road 865

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Originally a continuous Florida State Road extending from Bonita Springs to Tice, Florida and serving Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach, State Road 865 now consists of two segments connected by a part of Lee County Road 865 that was originally part of SR 865, one signed north-south, the other east-west.

[edit] State Road 865: Southern Section

Locally known as San Carlos Boulevard, the 4.8-mile-long southern section of SR 865 provides the Cape Coral-Fort Myers area access to Estero Island in the Gulf of Mexico. The southern terminus is an intersection with Estero Boulevard (current CR 865) in Fort Myers Beach, just east of Bodwitch Point Park; after crossing Mantanza Pass and San Carlos Island, SR 865 forms the western boundary of Estero Bay Preserve State Park adjacent to Hurricane Bay.

After an intersection with Summerlin Road (CR 869, formerly SR 869), a highway that connects downtown Fort Myers with Sanibel Island via the Sanibel-Captiva Bridge, the southern section of SR 865 continues northward its northern terminus, an intersection with McGregor Boulevard (CR 867 to the southwest of the intersection, SR 867 to the northeast), a more direct route connecting downtown Fort Myers to the popular Sanibel and Captiva islands. The northernmost 0.2 miles of this section of SR 865 (in Iona) was added to the southern segment at about the time that Florida Department of Transportation removed the SR 865 signs from a section of Gladiolus Drive (see below).

[edit] State Road 865: Northern Section

Extending 5.1 miles in Bigger and near Villas, the northern section of SR 865 is locally known as Gladiolus Road and Six Mile Cypress Parkway. The western terminus is an intersection with Summerlin Road (CR 869); the eastern terminus is an intersection with Metro Parkway (SR 739); one mile further to the east on Six Mile Cypress Parkway are the Lee County Sports Complex containing Bill Hammond Stadium, the spring training home of the Minnesota Twins major league baseball team, and, across the street, the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve.

[edit] Historic State Road 865 and Lee County Road 865

Until the 1980s, State Road 865 signs were posted along a much longer highway. In the mid 1970s, FDOT designated three large sections of then-SR 865 as secondary routes, which started a process in which these designated sections would be transformed from State Road 865 into Lee County Road 865. This was part of a series of transformations that particularly affected southern Florida.

The historic southern terminus of SR 865 is an interchange between Interstate 75 (SR 93) and Bonita Beach Road in Bonita Springs. From there SR 865 followed Bonita Beach Road westward, through Bonita Springs and Bonita Beach, to Hickory Avenue near the Gulf of Mexico shore. Motorists traveling north along then-SR 865 notice Hickory Avenue change into Bonita Beach Causeway and then Estero Boulevard as they pass through the city of Bonita Springs, Long Key, Black Island, and the city of Fort Myers Beach before leaving northward from Estero Island on San Carlos Boulevard (current SR 865).

From San Carlos Boulevard, the former SR 865 continued 17 miles eastward along Gladiolus Drive, then (first eastward, then northway) along Six Mile Cypress Parkway and north along Ortiz Avenue, to its historic northern terminus, an intersection with Palm Beach Boulevard (SR 80) in Tice. North of Fort Myers, the former SR 865 forms an alternative route toward Sanibel Island and Captiva Island by bypassing the downtown area.

Florida State Roads
Preceded by 862	State Road 865	Succeeded by 867