Matanzas River

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Bridge of Lions across the Matanzas River

Matanzas River is a body of water located in St. Johns and Flagler Counties in Florida. Contrary to its name, it is not actually a river at all but a narrow saltwater bar-bounded estuary sheltered from the Atlantic Ocean by Anastasia Island.

The Matanzas River is roughly 20 miles (32 km) in length and extends from St. Augustine Inlet in St. Augustine, Florida southward to approximately 8 miles (13 km) south of the Matanzas Inlet on the southern tip of Anastasia Island. The river is part of the Intracoastal Waterway.

The Matanzas River was considered the "backdoor" to the city of St. Augustine and control of the river was considered a strategic necessity for early Spanish colony at St. Augustine. The Spanish build Fort Matanzas in the 18th Century to control access to the river from Matanzas Inlet.

The Matanzas River supports an extensive tidal marsh habitat. Extensive conservation efforts including the Matanzas marsh, Faver-Dykes State Park, Princess Place preservation area, Pellicer Place preservation area, Pellicer Creek Aquatic Preserve, the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, and the Moses Creek conservation area have been established to preserve the ecosystem. The preserved areas include salt marshes, mangrove tidal wetlands, oyster bars, estuarine lagoons, upland habitat, and marine environments. The Matanzas River faces several pollution issues, mostly related to urbanization in St. Augustine and the northern portion of Anastasia Island.

Two major bridges cross the Matanzas River, the Bridge of Lions and the Mickler-O'Connell Bridge, both between St. Augustine and Anastasia Island.

The Matanzas River derives its name from the massacre of a group of 250 shipwrecked French Huguenots from Fort Caroline, lead by Jean Ribault, by Spanish settlers led by Pedro Menéndez de Avilés. The Huguenots were executed near the present site of Matanzas Inlet in 1565. Menéndez had been ordered to kill all Protestants he found in the New World. "Matanzas" means "massacre" in Spanish.