Description
Parking lot is open from 7am - 11pm at a rate of $2 per hour. Park and restroom facilities are open from dawn to dusk 7 days a week. Estero Island in the early years was called "Crescent Island" or "Ft. Myers Beach." It gained popularity with the opening of a wooden bridge in 1921, but the existing roads of that time made it difficult to get to island. After a hurricane in 1926 the bridge was torn down, a concrete one put in it's place and a new, more direct road was constructed, which eventually became known as San Carlos Boulevard. The road remains today, but the bridge was replaced a least one more time before the present "Sky Bridge" of today. With the replacement of the bridge, the addition of the new road and easier access the island became more popular for recreational activities.
In the 1930's a wooden fishing pier was constructed and the adjacent area was utilized for parking, picnicking, swimming and sunbathing with no amenities. These would later become to be known as the "Ft. Myers Beach Pier" and "Ft. Myers Beach Park." The wooden pier not only accommodated pedestrians, but some people used to drive their vehicles out on it. The difficulty came when they had to be backed all the way back off as it did not have the "T" or apron on the end as of today.
The County acquired the five acre facility in November of 1949. The area remained relatively unchanged until 1953. At that time the county built a bathhouse and had caretakers that lived at the park fulltime. T