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One of my favorite places to watch the sunset on St. Simons Island is from the St. Simons pier. Not only do you get a beautiful view of the wide open sky, there are always fishermen and crabbers to enjoy seeing in action, you get a perfect view of the SSI lighthouse to watch come alive at night, and if you follow me on Instagram you know that dolphins are a common sight as well!

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But you may not know that the bridge that’s often featured in my photos is the Sidney Lanier Bridge. At 7,780 feet/2371 meters long and 486 feet/148 meters high, it’s Georgia’s tallest cable-stayed suspension bridge, which was built in 2003 as a replacement to the original vertical lift bridge that partly collapsed after being struck twice by ships. It was named after Georgian poet Sidney Lanier, who wrote the famous poem “Marshes of Glynn County,” which beautifully describes the salt marshes that define the landscape of the Golden Isles.

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This four-lane bridge crosses over the South Brunswick River and provides easy access to the Golden Isles from the interstate. It’s also the bridge you take from St. Simons over to Jekyll Island, just be aware that that the left turn comes quite quickly after you come off the bridge and is very easy to miss! I learned that the hard way after missing it myself and driving nearly 30 minutes further than I needed to. 😆