The Mayport Ferry and Jacksonville's Only-Here Ways to Get Around

Have you taken the ferry yet?

You come around the last bend of A1A in Mayport, past the shrimp boats tied up with their nets furled like folded wings, and the road just ends at the water. There is a ramp, a gate, a line of cars, and a man in a reflective vest waving you forward with the unhurried authority of someone who has done this ten thousand times.

Then the ferry pulls in, the ramp drops, and you drive onto a boat.

The crossing takes about six minutes. You get out of the car because everyone gets out of the car. The wind comes off the St. Johns River in a way it never does on land, salt and diesel and something green underneath it. A freighter sits out toward the jetties. Pelicans ride the rail. On the far bank, Fort George Island is a low green line of maritime forest that has not changed much in four hundred years.

Six minutes. That is all it is. And every single person on that deck is smiling.

The ferry is a road, not an attraction

That is the part people get wrong at first. The St. Johns River Ferry is not a tourist boat. It is a segment of state road A1A, and without it the highway would simply stop. Drivers headed from Jacksonville Beach up to Amelia Island either take the ferry or drive twenty-something miles inland around the river and back out again.

It has been running in some form for the better part of a century, and it has come close to being shut down more than once. Locals get loud about that, which tells you how they feel about it. It is now operated as part of the regional transit system, and the vessel working the crossing carries the name of a sixteenth-century French navigator who spent some consequential time in these waters.

Practically speaking, you drive up, you pay at the booth, you wait for the next departure, and you cross. Vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles, and walk-on passengers all board. Bring cash or a card and check current schedule information before you plan your day around it, because weather and maintenance can interrupt service.

What the ferry connects you to

Here is the reason to build a day around it.

On the south bank you have Mayport Village, a working shrimping community wedged up against Naval Station Mayport. It is small, weathered, and entirely real. Seafood comes off boats and goes into buildings about fifty feet away.

On the north bank you land on Fort George Island, and within a few minutes of driving you can reach Kingsley Plantation, one of the most historically significant sites in Florida and part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. The road in runs under an oak canopy so dense it goes dark at midday.

Keep going north on A1A and you hit Little Talbot Island State Park, then Big Talbot Island, where the beach is littered with the bleached skeletons of fallen live oaks and looks like nowhere else in Florida. Then Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach at the top.

Turn the other way at the ferry landing and Huguenot Memorial Park puts you on a spit of sand between the river, the jetties, and the Atlantic, where you can still drive a vehicle onto the beach.

That is a full Saturday, and the ferry is the hinge it turns on.

The river taxi downtown

Jacksonville's downtown sits on both banks of the St. Johns, which historically has been a problem. The river is wide, the bridges are built for cars, and walking from the Northbank to the Southbank is not a casual stroll.

The river taxi solves it. Small boats run back and forth across the water, connecting the Northbank riverfront with the Southbank Riverwalk and the sports complex on the east end. On a game day or an event weekend, it is the best seat in town, and on an ordinary evening it is a five-minute boat ride that costs less than parking.

Take it once at sunset. The Main Street Bridge goes blue, the skyline catches the last of the light, and you remember that this is a river city that occasionally forgets it is a river city.

The Skyway, which is exactly as strange as it sounds

Downtown Jacksonville has an elevated automated people mover. No driver, small cars, a couple of miles of track, and stations scattered around the core and across the Acosta Bridge to the San Marco side.

It is free. It has been free for years. Almost nobody outside downtown has ridden it.

Ride it anyway. The elevated track gives you a view of the river and the downtown grid you cannot get from street level, and the crossing over the Acosta is worth the trip by itself. The transit authority has been working on converting the system into an autonomous vehicle network that would extend beyond the current track, so what the Skyway is may change. What it is right now is a free three-minute view.

The bridges are the real landmarks

You will learn to give directions by bridge here. Everyone does.

• The Main Street Bridge is the blue lift bridge downtown, and the one you have seen in photographs.
• The Acosta Bridge runs alongside it and carries the Skyway underneath the roadway.
• The Fuller Warren Bridge carries I-95 across the river and now has a shared-use path along the side, so you can walk or ride across the St. Johns under your own power.
• The Hart Bridge is the green one by the stadium, with a long ramp that dumps you downtown.
• The Mathews Bridge links Arlington to downtown and is the one every local has an opinion about.
• The Dames Point Bridge is the cable-stayed span carrying I-295 across the river on the north end, and it is the most dramatic drive in the city.
• The Buckman Bridge closes the loop on the south side, crossing the widest part of the river.

South of the city, the Shands Bridge connects Green Cove Springs in Clay County to the St. Johns County side, with the First Coast Expressway project building a new crossing nearby. And in St. Augustine, the Bridge of Lions still opens on a schedule for sailboats while traffic waits, marble lions watching from the east approach. Up at Vilano Beach, the high span over the Intracoastal gives you one of the best coastal views in the state from a car window.

Why any of this matters when you are house hunting

Because in Northeast Florida, water dictates your commute.

Two addresses can be four miles apart as the pelican flies and thirty-five minutes apart by road, because the only way between them crosses a river or the Intracoastal. Beaches residents know exactly which bridge they cross and when. Anyone in Nocatee, Palencia, or Ponte Vedra Beach has a mental model of the Intracoastal crossings. People in Arlington plan around the Mathews.

When you tour houses, drive the route you would actually drive, at the hour you would actually drive it. That one habit will tell you more about a neighborhood than any amount of research.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does the Mayport ferry go?

The St. Johns River Ferry crosses the St. Johns River between Mayport Village on the south bank and Fort George Island on the north bank, carrying A1A traffic. From the north landing you can reach Kingsley Plantation, Little and Big Talbot Island State Parks, and continue up toward Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach.

Can you walk or bike onto the ferry?

Yes. The ferry carries vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles, and walk-on passengers. Fares differ by type, and schedules can be affected by weather and maintenance, so check current information before you go.

Is the Jacksonville Skyway free to ride?

The Skyway has operated without a fare for years and connects points around downtown Jacksonville, including a crossing over the Acosta Bridge toward the San Marco side. The transit authority has been developing an expanded autonomous system, so the network itself may continue to change.

How do bridges affect commute times in Northeast Florida?

Significantly. River and Intracoastal crossings are limited, so short straight-line distances can turn into long drives. When you are evaluating a neighborhood, always test the drive to the places you will actually go, at the time of day you will actually go there.

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What To Do Right Now

Take the ferry on a Saturday, drive the Talbot Islands, and pay attention to how the day feels. Then let's talk about what it would take to do that whenever you want.

Call or text Joey Larsen at 904-863-6679, or visit RetireMeToFlorida.com to get started.