If you are buying a Cape Coral home for the boat as much as the house, one number decides what you can keep at your dock: the lowest fixed bridge between you and open water. This page publishes that number for every canal crossing the City maintains, with its source and its date on the page, because nobody else in this market does.
How to read this table
Find your boat's air draft — the height from the waterline to the tallest fixed point, radar arch, hard top, antenna, whatever it is that will not fold down. Enter it in the box above and every crossing that would stop you turns red. Then look at the route from a specific address to open water: your access is set by the lowest bridge on that route, not the nearest one and not the average.
Two figures matter more than the rest. The median canal crossing in Cape Coral clears 8 ft, and 93 of the 122 measured crossings are under 9 ft. That is the real shape of this canal system: superb powerboat water, and only certain routes that a tall boat can use at all.
The ten lowest crossings
These are the bridges that most often decide a buyer's answer. Each is a city or county maintained canal crossing with a published clearance:
- 5.5 ft — Santa Barbara Blvd over Cadman Canal
- 5.6 ft — Burnt Store Rd N over Arroz Canal
- 5.6 ft — Burnt Store Rd N over Gator Slough Canal
- 5.6 ft — Burnt Store Rd S over Shadroe Canal
- 5.9 ft — Burnt Store Rd N over Hermosa Canal
- 5.9 ft — Burnt Store Rd N over Horseshoe Canal
- 6.5 ft — Nicholas Pkwy W over Kennedy Canal
- 6.5 ft — SW 28th St over Aries Canal
- 6.5 ft — Trafalgar Pkwy over Providence Canal
- 6.6 ft — Del Prado Blvd N over Jaguar Canal
At the other end, the highest canal crossings are Country Club Blvd over Montevideo Canal and Pelican Blvd over Shenandoah Canal, both at 11.75 ft.
What is deliberately not in this table
The City's bridge layer covers city and county maintained canal crossings. It does not contain the Cape Coral Bridge, the Midpoint Memorial Bridge, or the Matlacha (Pine Island Rd) bridge, so we publish no clearance for them. If your route depends on one of them, confirm it against a current NOAA chart or with the U.S. Coast Guard rather than trusting any real estate website, ours included.
The 34 crossings that are not navigable
Thirty-four crossings in the City's layer are recorded as not navigable. These are culverts and low fixed spans — a boat does not pass them at any air draft. We show them with no number rather than the zero that appears in the raw data, because a "0 ft" in a clearance column reads like a measurement and it is not one. Toggle Not navigable above to see them; if one sits between a property and open water, that route is closed regardless of what your boat looks like.
What this does to value
In Cape Coral the water is priced, not just the house. A lot with no fixed bridge to open water — what the market calls direct or sailboat access — commands a premium over a bridged gulf-access lot on the same canal, and both sit well above freshwater. Note that "sailboat access" is about the absence of a fixed span, not about a clearance figure. We break the tiers down in Freshwater vs. Gulf Access, and if you are weighing what your dock can actually hold, Seawalls, Docks & Lifts covers the rest of the waterfront due diligence.
Frequently asked questions
What is the lowest bridge clearance in Cape Coral?
Among the 122 city and county canal crossings that publish a figure, the lowest is 5.5 ft at Santa Barbara Blvd over Cadman Canal, followed by three crossings at 5.6 ft on Burnt Store Rd (Arroz, Gator Slough and Shadroe canals). These figures are from the City of Cape Coral's GIS layer and are approximate — they do not include the major spans over the Caloosahatchee.
What is the highest canal bridge clearance in Cape Coral?
11.75 ft, at two crossings: Country Club Blvd over Montevideo Canal and Pelican Blvd over Shenandoah Canal. Several Del Prado Blvd S crossings follow at 11.25 ft.
How many bridges cross Cape Coral's canals?
The City's bridge layer contains 159 canal crossings. 122 publish a vertical clearance, 34 are recorded as not navigable (culverts and low fixed spans a boat cannot pass at any height), and 3 carry no published figure.
What is a typical Cape Coral canal bridge clearance?
The median is 8 ft and the average is 8.3 ft. 93 of the 122 measured crossings are under 9 ft, which is why so much of the Cape's saltwater canal network is powerboat water rather than sailboat water.
Does this table include the Cape Coral Bridge, Midpoint or Matlacha bridge?
No, and deliberately. The City's layer covers city and county maintained canal crossings only. The major spans over the Caloosahatchee and at Matlacha are not in it, so we publish no figure for them. Verify those independently with the U.S. Coast Guard or a current NOAA chart before you transit.
Does clearance change with the tide?
Yes. Every figure here is a fixed published number, but the water underneath it is not fixed. The source dataset does not state the vertical datum the clearances were measured to, so treat them as approximate height above mean high water and always leave yourself margin. The City publishes this data expressly "not for precise measurements."
What clearance do I need for direct or sailboat access?
"Direct" or "sailboat" access means no fixed bridge between the property and open water — not a particular number of feet. If your route crosses any fixed span, your air draft has to clear the lowest one on that route, and that is what sets what you can keep at the dock.
Clearance figures reproduced from City of Cape Coral Public Works GIS open data, retrieved 31 July 2026. Approximate and subject to change; not for navigation. C&K Realty is a licensed Florida real estate brokerage and does not provide marine or engineering advice.