Sarasota County is a county located in Southwest Florida. At the 2020 US census, the population was 434,006. Its county seat is Sarasota and its largest city is North Port. Sarasota County is part of the North Port–Bradenton–Sarasota, FL metropolitan statistical area.
Bradenton Beach is a city on Anna Maria Island in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The population was 908 at the 2020 census, down from 1,171 in 2010. It is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Holmes Beach is a city on Anna Maria Island in Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 3,010, down from 3,836 at the 2010 census. It is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city occupies the central part of Anna Maria Island and is one of three municipalities on the island. The others are Bradenton Beach in the south and Anna Maria in the north.
Longboat Key is a town in Manatee and Sarasota counties along the central west coast of the U.S. state of Florida, located on and coterminous with the barrier island of the same name. Longboat Key is south of Anna Maria Island, between Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It is almost equally divided between the Manatee and Sarasota counties. The town of Longboat Key was incorporated in 1955 and is part of the North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The town's population was 7,505 at the 2020 census, up from 6,888 at the 2010 census.
The 4-mile (6.4–km) St. George Island Bridge was built in 2002 when the two original bridges that led to St. George Island, a small resort community 10 miles (16 km) from Apalachicola, Florida, were deemed unsafe due to their old age. The original bridges opened in 1965; prior to that, visitors used a ferry to get to the island. The new bridge, by bypassing the middle island, became the 3rd-longest bridge in Florida. The north end of SR 300 is at US 98 in Eastpoint. It was opened on February 27, 2004.
Lido Key is a barrier island off the coast of Sarasota, Florida, in the United States. It is part of the city of Sarasota and is connected to mainland Sarasota by John Ringling Causeway.
St. Armands Key is an island in Sarasota Bay off the west coast of Florida in the United States. It is part of the city of Sarasota, Florida. The island is connected to the mainland by the John Ringling Causeway.
State Road 789 is a 17.5-mile-long road along the Florida’s Gulf Coast that spans Bird Key, St. Armands Key, and Lido Key, in Sarasota; Longboat Key ; and Anna Maria Island. The southern terminus is the intersection of the John Ringling Causeway and Tamiami Trail in Sarasota; the northern terminus is the intersection of Gulf Drive, North and Manatee Avenue., West in Holmes Beach. Much of the northernmost five miles (8 km) has been designated Bradenton Beach Scenic Highway.
State Road 780, known as Fruitville Road, is a 5-mile-long (8.0 km) east–west street in Sarasota, Florida. The western terminus is an intersection with US 301/SR 683. The eastern terminus is east of an interchange with Interstate 75 in Fruitville, where the road continues east as County Road 780. West of US 301, Fruitville Road extends one mile (1.6 km) west of the end of SR 780, ending at an intersection with the Tamiami Trail in Downtown Sarasota.
The Sarasota metropolitan area is a metropolitan area located in Southwest Florida. The metropolitan area is defined by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as the North Port–Bradenton–Sarasota Metropolitan Statistical Area, a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) consisting of Manatee County and Sarasota County. The principal cities listed by the OMB for the MSA are North Port, Bradenton, Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch, and Venice. At the 2020 census, the MSA had a population of 833,716. The Census Bureau estimates that its population was 891,411 in 2022.
The 1848 Tampa Bay hurricane was the strongest known hurricane to impact the Tampa Bay area of the U.S. state of Florida. Along with the 1921 Tampa Bay hurricane, it is one of only two major hurricanes to make landfall along Central Florida's west coast since Florida became a United States territory in 1821.
Historic district
State Road 64 extends from City Road 789 near the Gulf of Mexico in Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island in Manatee County to US 27/US 98 in Avon Park in Highlands County. State Road 64 travels from west to east through the counties of Manatee, Hardee and Highlands. It is a mostly rural two-lane highway going through only two cities, Bradenton and Zolfo Springs. It crosses the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway as well as the Braden River, Lake Manatee, and the Myakka River. East of Avon Park, a bi-county extension runs northeast into Polk County which runs through Lake Wales Ridge State Forest and terminates at the Avon Park US Air Force Base. It is designated as the Florida Cracker Trail from Bradenton to the Hardee County Line.
The Matanzas Pass Bridge is a bridge located in Fort Myers Beach, Florida. It carries State Road 865 between the Florida mainland and Estero Island, which is a major tourist destination. The bridge is one of the island's two connections to the mainland. The other is the Bonita Beach Causeway on the south end of the island.
Anna Maria Island is a barrier island on the coast of Manatee County, Florida, in the United States. It is bounded on the west by the Gulf of Mexico, on the south by Longboat Pass, on the east by Anna Maria Sound, and on the north by Tampa Bay. Anna Maria Island is approximately 7 miles (11 km) long north to south.
John Ringling Causeway is a causeway that extends past the Sarasota Bay, from Sarasota to St. Armands Key and Lido Key. The 65-foot-tall (20 m) bridge, built in 2003, is a segmental box girder bridge running from Sarasota to Bird Key. Another short bridge carries the causeway from Bird Key to Coon Key and St. Armand's Key. The causeway is named after John Ringling, one of the founders of the Ringling Brothers Circus and resident of the Sarasota area.
Manatee County Area Transit (MCAT) provides public transportation for Manatee County, Florida and is operated by the county. the system had about 4,100 riders per weekday as of the first quarter of 2024.
The Cortez Bridge is a double-leaf bascule bridge that connects the barrier islands of Bradenton Beach, and the mainland of Cortez, Florida. It crosses the Sarasota Bay, carries Cortez Road, part of SR 684, and was built in 1956, replacing a swing bridge built in 1921.
SR 789 
