State Road 688 (SR 688) is an east–west route in

Pinellas County Pinellas County (, ) is a county located on the west central coast of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 959,107. The county is part of the Tampa–St. Petersburg– Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical ...

running from

Indian Rocks Beach Indian Rocks Beach, or IRB, is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 4,286 at the 2018 census. Indian Rocks Beach is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Located on the ba ...

to northeastern

St. Petersburg, Florida St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 258,308, making it the fifth-most populous city in Florida and the second-largest city in the Tampa Bay Area, after Tampa. It is the ...

, where it merges onto Interstate 275 (I-275).

Route description

The highway changes its name as it heads east across Pinellas County. From Gulf Boulevard in

, it runs along 5th Avenue and crosses the bridge over the

Intracoastal Waterway The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following t ...

as the Indian Rocks Causeway. Once off the causeway, it becomes Walsingham Road and runs on to the intersection of Walsingham and Ulmerton Roads. Walsingham continues east, but State Road 688 loops north and then east on Ulmerton Road. It skirts Largo before crossing

U.S. Route 19 U.S. Route 19 (US 19) is a north–south U.S. Highway in the Eastern United States. Despite encroaching Interstate Highways, the route has remained a long-haul road, connecting the Gulf of Mexico with Lake Erie. The highway's southern ...

(US 19) and then merges briefly with Roosevelt Boulevard ( SR 686). It continues into northeast

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and its traffic merges with I-275.

History

Ulmerton Road was named for the community of Ulmers, which arose around Marion Ulmer's

turpentine Turpentine (which is also called spirit of turpentine, oil of turpentine, terebenthene, terebinthine and (colloquially) turps) is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin harvested from living trees, mainly pines. Mainly used as a spec ...

still,

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

and

naval stores Naval stores are all liquid products derived from conifers. These materials include rosin, tall oil, pine oil, and terpentine. The term ''naval stores'' originally applied to the organic compounds used in building and maintaining wooden sail ...

interests in the first half of the twentieth century. In the 1950s, the area was very rural, and cattle were driven along the then dirt road. Today it carries traffic across the middle of the most densely populated county in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

Route description

History

Major intersections

References

Further reading