State Road 710 (SR 710) is a northwest-southeast route connecting SR 70 near Okeechobee, three miles (5 km) from the northern tip of

Lake Okeechobee Lake Okeechobee (), also known as Florida's Inland Sea, is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the tenth largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the second-largest natural freshwat ...

in south central

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 ...

, to Old

Dixie Highway Dixie Highway was a United States auto trail first planned in 1914 to connect the Midwest with the South. It was part of a system and was expanded from an earlier Miami to Montreal highway. The final system is better understood as a network of ...

( CR 811) in Riviera Beach. Most of the route is also known as Bee-Line Highway and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, as it parallels the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

tracks maintained by

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

(their

Auburndale Subdivision Auburndale may refer to: * Auburndale, Alberta * Auburndale, Nova Scotia * Auburndale, Florida * Auburndale, Louisville, Kentucky, a neighborhood * Auburndale, Massachusetts **Auburndale station (MBTA) * Auburndale, Wisconsin * Auburndale (town), W ...

) and used by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

; and doesn’t have a turn or curve in the southeast of

Sherman Sherman most commonly refers to: *Sherman (name), a surname and given name (and list of persons with the name) ** William Tecumseh Sherman (1820–1891), American Civil War General *M4 Sherman, a tank Sherman may also refer to: Places United St ...

, except for a small bend northwest of

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 ...

. Near the middle of the highway, where Indiantown is located, the route is also known as Warfield Boulevard, named after

S. Davies Warfield Solomon Davies Warfield (September 4, 1859 – October 24, 1927) was an American railroad executive and banker. He is primarily remembered for extending the Seaboard Air Line Railway into South Florida in the 1920s and for connecting the east an ...

, the president of the

Seaboard Air Line Railroad The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , which styled itself "The Route of Courteous Service," was an American railroad which existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime rival, t ...

who originally built the adjacent railroad tracks.

Route description

The Bee-Line Highway traverses the

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the ''plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

s and

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s north and east of Lake Okeechobee, with an occasional farm near its northwestern end. It is a popular

truck route A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructi ...

that is used as an alternative to

US 441 U.S. Route 441 (US 441) is a auxiliary route of U.S. Route 41. It extends from US 41 in Miami, Florida to US 25W in Rocky Top, Tennessee. Between its termini, US 441 travels through the states of Florida, Georgia, North ...

US 98 U.S. Route 98 (US 98) is an east–west United States Highway in the Southeastern United States that runs from western Mississippi to southern Florida. It was established in 1933 as a route between Pensacola and Apalachicola, Florida, and has sinc ...

/ SR 700. Along the way, SR 710 passes through Indiantown (near the St. Lucie Canal and midway along the Bee Line stretch) and

West Palm Beach West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...

History

The road was first built in 1924 by New York businessman William "Fingy" Conners as a toll road to carry people to his properties at Okeechobee and

Connersville Connersville is a city in Fayette County, east central Indiana, United States, east by southeast of Indianapolis. The population was 13,481 at the 2010 census. The city is the county seat of and the largest and only incorporated town in Fa ...

. For a year in the 1940s, Bee Line Highway was part of State Road 66 before the number was changed to 710.

Major intersections

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:710 State highways in Florida State Roads in Okeechobee County, Florida State Roads in Martin County, Florida State Roads in Palm Beach County, Florida Dixie Highway