Life on the St. Johns River

The St. Johns is its own kind of waterfront

The St. Johns River runs roughly 310 miles and is one of the few major rivers in North America that flows north — emptying into the Atlantic at the Mayport jetties on Jacksonville's east side. That single fact shapes everything about living on it. The lower river is tidal and brackish near the mouth, transitions to fresh as you head south past Mandarin and Switzerland, and gives you something the ocean and most lakes cannot: genuine deep-water access to the Intracoastal and the ocean, from a protected address well inland.

Because the lower river is tidal, NE Florida sees a tidal range of roughly 5 feet near the mouth. A dock that floats a center console at high tide can sit on mud at low — so on the river, "deep water" is a measurement, not an adjective. We look at depth at mean low water (MLW), distance to the navigable channel, and the bottom contour before we ever fall in love with a view.

And then there is the paperwork the water carries with it. In Florida, owning river frontage does not automatically grant the right to build a dock out to navigable water. The St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), Florida DEP, and — on federally navigable stretches — the Army Corps of Engineers all hold permitting authority. Existing dock permits, riparian-line geometry on point and curved lots, and seawall condition are all part of river diligence in a way they simply are not on dry land.