State Road 786 (SR 786), locally known as PGA Boulevard, is an east–west highway located completely within the city limits of

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida Palm Beach Gardens is a city in Palm Beach County in the U.S. state of Florida, 77 miles north of downtown Miami. , the population was 59,182. Palm Beach Gardens is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6 ...

. Serving as the major east-west route in the city, it spans from the Bee Line Highway ( SR 710) to Federal Highway (

U.S. Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

or US 1) and SR A1A.

Route description

The western terminus is an intersection with Bee Line Highway ( SR 710) near

North Palm Beach County General Aviation Airport North Palm Beach County Airport , also known as North County Airport, is an uncontrolled (non-towered) general aviation airport located northwest of West Palm Beach off the Bee Line Highway in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. The airport is owned b ...

at the Palm Beach Gardens city limits. It begins as a two lane road through undeveloped sections of Palm Beach Gardens, with the first development on the road occurring after a canal crossing two miles from the western terminus and becomes a four lane road. The road then creates the border between two major golf country clubs, with the Country Club at Mirasol to the north and the

Professional Golfers' Association of America The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA of America) is an American organization of golf professionals that was founded in 1916. Consisting of nearly 29,000 men and women members, the PGA of America's undertaking is to establish ...

's National Golf Club, where PGA Boulevard receives its name, to the south. Following the Avenue of Champions/Jog Road intersection, SR 786 reaches the intersection with

Florida's Turnpike Florida's Turnpike, designated as unsigned State Road 91 (SR 91), is a toll road in the U.S. state of Florida, maintained by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (FTE). Spanning approximately along a northwest–southeast axis, the turnpike is in two s ...

(SR 91), with an overpass with the toll road just east of it. To the east of the Turnpike, PGA Boulevard borders the Ballenisles Country Club to the south, and other residential communities to the north, and quickly transitions to a commercial road, with a shopping center on both sides of the road heading closer to Military Trail. After this interchange, PGA Boulevard moves to the northeast and quickly approaches the interchange with

Interstate The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

(I-95 or SR 9), an overpass with SR 811 and access via a side road. This overpass also crosses the

Florida East Coast Railway The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a pr ...

, where

Tri-Rail Tri-Rail is a commuter rail line linking Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in Florida, United States. The ''Tri'' prefix in the name refers to the three counties served by the railroad: Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade. Tri-Rail i ...

has proposed adding a station. Afterwards, the road heads straight east and forms the southern boundary of

The Gardens Mall The Gardens Mall is a two-story, enclosed shopping mall in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. Its anchors are Macy's, Sears, Bloomingdale's, Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue, and it features more than 160 specialty shops and restaurants. History The Gar ...

, with other shopping centers on the southern side of the road. At the southeast end of the mall, the southern side of PGA Blvd. forms the northern border of the

Palm Beach State College Palm Beach State College is a public college in Lake Worth, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System. Palm Beach State College enrolls nearly 27,000 students in over 100 programs of study including bachelor of applied science, associa ...

Palm Beach Gardens campus until an intersection with Prosperity Farms Road. Afterwards, the road passes through a drawbridge over a canal before reaching the eastern terminus at the intersection with Federal Highway (US 1- SR 5) and SR A1A. East of US 1, PGA Boulevard becomes Ocean Boulevard and SR A1A, which continue along a

barrier island Barrier islands are coastal landforms and a type of Dune, dune system that are exceptionally flat or lumpy areas of sand that form by wave and tidal action parallel to the mainland coast. They usually occur in chains, consisting of anything fro ...

of the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

and pass through

John D. MacArthur Beach State Park John D. MacArthur Beach State Park, named for John D. MacArthur whose Foundation donated a portion of the land for its construction in the 1970s, is located on and just north of Singer Island, Florida in North Palm Beach, Florida. The park was f ...

History

Most of the original alignment of the highway was known as "Monet Road" (named for a settlement located near the modern day intersection of RCA Boulevard and SR 811 in Palm Beach Gardens) and was a gravel road. The highway had received the "PGA Boulevard" name in 1965 six years after the incorporation of Palm Beach Gardens at the request of the city's founder

John D. MacArthur John Donald MacArthur (March 6, 1897 – January 6, 1978) was an American insurance magnate, real estate investor and philanthropist who established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, benefactor in the MacArthur Fellowships. ...

. Following a realignment of SR 786 east of I-95, a portion of the old road was renamed "RCA Boulevard" due to the road serving a new

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

factory there. From 1973 until 1987, SR 786 served as the temporary northern terminus of I-95 in southeastern Florida, when a previously approved alignment in which I-95 would be cosigned with Florida's Turnpike for a stretch from PGA Boulevard northbound to SR 70 in

Fort Pierce Fort Pierce is a city in and the county seat of St. Lucie County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Treasure Coast region of Atlantic Coast Florida. It is also known as the Sunrise City, sister to San Francisco, California, the Suns ...

was rescinded in favor of a separate alignment for I-95 The portion of I-95 north of PGA Boulevard was completed in 1987."Gap In I-95 To Close Saturday". Miami Herald 13 Dec 1987: 1A Since then, PGA Boulevard has become an important commercial and commuter route due to the rapid population growth in northeastern Palm Beach County.

Major intersections

References

External links

{{Attached KML
When PGA Boulevard was a two-lane gravel path
- Sarah E. Skinner, Historic Palm Beach Blog, June 14, 2012

786 __NOTOC__ Year 786 ( DCCLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 786 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Eur ...