Before the Highway

The Old Jungle Trail — the road before the road: Before State Road A1A was built along the barrier island, the only way to travel along the island was a sandy trail through the maritime hammock — known to locals as the Old Jungle Trail. The barrier island: The barrier island (the long, narrow island that includes Cocoa Beach, Cape Canaveral, and the beaches south) was, in the 1800s and early 1900s, a remote, sparsely-settled place. The interior of the island was covered in dense maritime hammock — a thick, jungle-like forest of live oaks, cabbage palms, palmettos, and vines. There were no roads, only the beach (at low tide) and a few sandy tracks through the hammock. The Old Jungle Trail: One of these tracks became known as the Old Jungle Trail — a path that ran roughly along the line the modern A1A would later follow. It was used by early settlers, fishermen, turtle hunters, and anyone who needed to move along the island. It was narrow, sandy, and passable only on foot, on horseback, or by wagon in dry weather. After rain, it could be impassable. Why it mattered: The Old Jungle Trail was the barrier island's only land route. It connected the few early settlements, the turtle camps, and the beach access points. Without it, the island's interior was effectively unreachable except by boat. The trail was the spine of early island life — and it shaped where the first roads and later A1A would go. Today the trail is mostly gone, buried under the highway and the development — but the route it established is the route tens of thousands of cars drive every day.