State Road 407 (SR 407), known locally as Challenger Memorial Parkway, is a

spur A spur is a metal tool designed to be worn in pairs on the heels of riding boots for the purpose of directing a horse or other animal to move forward or laterally while riding. It is usually used to refine the riding aids (commands) and to back ...

from

SR 528 The following highways are numbered 528: Canada *Alberta Highway 528 * Ontario Highway 528 ** Ontario Highway 528A United States

* * * * * * * * {{Road index, 528 ...

(Martin Andersen Beachline Expressway) that links to SR 405. By utilizing the SR 407 to SR 405 route, travelers from

Central Florida Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. Different sources give different definitions for the region, but as its name implies it is usually said to comprise the central part of the state, including the Tampa Bay area and the Gr ...

can access the

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

and the city of Titusville. Some road maps (for example,

AAA AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to: Airports * Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA) * Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA) Arts, entertainment, and me ...

) show SR 407 between SR 528 and

Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1, US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between M ...

(I-95) to be a toll road. While no tolls are collected on SR 407 and it is not signed as a toll road, it is impossible to drive on this section without also connecting to or from State Road 528 and paying a toll.

Route description

State Road 407 was built as a

two-lane freeway A two-lane expressway or two-lane freeway is an expressway or freeway with only one lane in each direction, and usually no median barrier. It may be built that way because of constraints, or may be intended for expansion once traffic volumes ris ...

, meaning that although the highway is expressway-standard, it is merely two lanes with only a dotted or solid yellow line in the middle separating northbound and southbound traffic. Within the SR 528/SR 407/I-95 triangle is a

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

land containing the southern unit of

St. Johns National Wildlife Refuge The St. Johns National Wildlife Refuge is part of the United States National Wildlife Refuge System, located off SR 50 just west of Titusville. The 6,255 acre (25 km2) refuge was established in 1971 to protect the now extinct dusky seasid ...

, a popular resting area for migrating birds (the northern unit is two miles (3 km) to the north, adjacent to I-95 and SR 50), and just to the west of the triangle is

Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area is located along the St. Johns River east of Orlando in Christmas on Taylor Creek Road, off SR 50. Flora The wildlife management area (WMA) contains 1000 acres of old growth floodplain swamp, twenty to forty a ...

, which extends from SR 50 southward to just south of SR 520 in nearby

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

History

The street is named after

Space Shuttle Challenger Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' (OV-099) was a Space Shuttle orbiter manufactured by Rockwell International and operated by NASA. Named after the commanding ship of a nineteenth-century scientific expedition that traveled the world, ''Challenge ...

which disintegrated 73 seconds after launch in 1986. The northern half of the road lost its two-lane freeway qualities when an at-grade intersection was built just south of SR 405, providing a southern exit to Florida's Spaceport Industrial Park and

Space Coast Regional Airport Space is the boundless three-dimensional extent in which objects and events have relative position and direction. In classical physics, physical space is often conceived in three linear dimensions, although modern physicists usually consider ...

Major intersections

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:407 State highways in Florida

Florida State Road 407 State Road 407 (SR 407), known locally as Challenger Memorial Parkway, is a spur from SR 528 (Martin Andersen Beachline Expressway) that links to SR 405. By utilizing the SR 407 to SR 405 route, travelers from Central Florida can access the Kenn ...

State Roads in Brevard County, Florida