Indian Rocks Causeway Bridge, Indian Rocks Beach
A part of FL 688, the Indian Rocks Bridge is part of a cross Pinellas County highway that comprises of Walsingham Road and Ulmerton Road, leading out to Interstate 275 at Exit 31. When the Indian Rocks Bridge initially opened it used to carry FL 694 which extended from here to the intersection with Oakhurst Road, then south on Oakhurst Road to Park Blvd. and then east on Park Blvd. Later on the Florida DOT decommissioned FL 694 on the Indian Rocks Bridge/Walshingham Road-Oakhurst Road-Park Blvd. route resulting in Oakhurst Road and Park Blvd. west of 66 St N being turned over to Pinellas County and the part of Walshingham Road carrying the Indian Rocks Bridge being reclassified as FL 688.
FL 688 terminates at Gulf Blvd. just after crossing the Indian Rocks Bridge, so does FL 699 north in Indian Rocks Beach. Gulf Blvd. transitions from Florida DOT to Pinellas County responsibility north of FL 688 as County Road 183.
FL 688 was basically four lanes divided throughout the entire route through central Pinellas County, except for the section over the Indian Rocks Bridge which was the two-lane drawbridge built in 1958. The 1958 bridge served its purpose for many years until improvements to FL 688 brought about a parallel drawbridge constructed immediately north of the existing drawbridge in 1999. The 1999 bridge would be for the westbound lanes of FL 688 going into Indian Rocks Beach while the 1958 bridge would be converted from its two-way traffic configuration to a one-way configuration for eastbound FL 688 traffic headed to Largo and the Carillon area of St. Petersburg as well as Tampa via a connection to Interstate 275 at Exit 31.
Like the Park Blvd. Bridge, the Indian Rocks Bridge opens on signal by the boater or by contact to the bridge tender via marine VHF Channel 9. When the gates are lowered, motorists must wait on land as the Indian Rocks Bridge is a short bridge unlike the other bridges to the Pinellas County beaches. When the 1999 bridge opened the bridge tender's house got a better makeover on the outside compared to the small bridge tender's house on the 1958 span which looked like the bridge tender houses at Tierra Verde Bridge and the Pinellas Bayway.
