Jacksonville covers more ground than any other city in the continental United States, and the St. Johns River winds right through the middle of it. I-95 runs north-south through downtown, crossing the river on the Fuller Warren Bridge, and I-10 begins downtown and heads west toward Tallahassee. I-295 forms a huge beltway around the city, crossing the river twice, on the Buckman Bridge to the south and the Dames Point Bridge to the northeast. J. Turner Butler Boulevard, Beach Boulevard and Atlantic Boulevard run east from the Southside to the Beaches, and US 17 follows Roosevelt Boulevard toward Orange Park.
Because the river splits the city, the bridges are where traffic piles up. The Fuller Warren, the Main Street and Acosta bridges downtown, the Mathews and Hart bridges to the east and the Buckman to the south all back up at rush hour, and a crash on any one of them ripples across town. JTB and I-295 through the Southside office corridor are slow every weekday, and Beach Boulevard is a long string of lights. Distances here are so long that a tow from the Westside to the Southside can take most of an hour on its own.
Jacksonville International Airport sits far north of downtown off I-95, and its garages and economy lots are a regular service stop. JTA buses and the downtown Skyway serve parts of the city, but almost everyone drives. Naval Air Station Jacksonville on the Westside and Naval Station Mayport at the mouth of the river bring heavy commuter traffic, and many military families live in the neighborhoods between them.
