Indian River Facts
From Indian River Lagoon Project
- Indian River lies within 5 Florida East Coast counties: Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Martin, and Palm Beach County.
- 121 mile long Indian River is the largest lagoon in the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary.
- In spite of its name, the Indian River is not an actual river with a directional current, but a still lagoon where the water's movement provided by wind and some minor tidal influence near the inlets.[1]
- Indian River is a brackish water lagoon containing saltwater from ocean inlets and freshwater from river, creek, and drainage canal tributaries.
- Saltwater enters the Indian River lagoon from four Atlantic Ocean inlets: Sebastian, Ft. Pierce, Jupiter, and Palm Beach
- Freshwater rivers: Eau Gallie River, St. Sebastian, St. Lucie, Loxahatchee
- Freshwater feeder creeks include: Turnbull, Addison, Crane, Turkey Creek, Goat, Kid, Trout, Crawford, and Taylor.
- Indian River averages 4ft in depth with large shallow flats less than 2' deep. Man-made channels, canals, and marina basins are dredged much deeper.
- The Intracoastal Waterway, a national navigational channel through the entire Indian River, is maintained at a 10-12ft depth.
- There are currently 22 causeways and bridges spanning the Indian River.
