Mini-Lesson:

There Really is an Alligator Alley

OVERVIEW

Students will read a one page article on the highway known as “Alligator Alley” in order to understand the road’s connection to the music.

LEARNING GOAL

Through reading the article, students will be able to locate Highway I-75, know how it got its nickname, “Alligator Alley,” and understand its connection to the BandQuest® piece.

MATERIALS

Individual copies or projected copy of the article: There Really is an Alligator Alley

PROCESS

As you start working on the music, assign this article as well as the Program Notes to find out an actual highway in South Florida is related to the music of the same name. It can be read together in class as by volunteer readers, read in small groups, or used as a home reading assignment. This reading will provide additional information to students working on the Write Your Own Program Notes assignment found in the Lessons with Interdisciplinary Connections folder of this curriculum.

ASSESSMENT

Use the other Alligator Alley assessments included in the Teacher’s Guide of the curriculum to assess student learning about the composer and the music.

A cypress swamp in the Everglades

There Really is an Alligator Alley

INTRODUCTION

Composer Michael Daugherty was inspired to write Alligator Alley because he was concerned that a highway through the Everglades threatens the survival of the American alligator. This article will tell you more about the actual Alligator Alley.

WHERE IS IT? The highway cuts across the southern part of Florida from Naples on the west coast to Fort Lauderdale on the east coast. This section of Interstate I-75 is called Alligator Alley, though its real name is the Everglades Parkway. Most of the highway runs right through the Everglades. The Everglades are a region of subtropical wetlands located in South Florida. They comprise the southern half of a large watershed (the area or region drained by a river, river system, or other body of water).

ABOUT THE ROAD Planning for the road took place in the 1950s and 1960s. It was not a popular project and was opposed by many Florida citizens and by the American Automobile Association. They believed that people would never use the road and it would eventually become just an "alley for alligators.” The name stuck and actually turned out to be rather appropriate. Because alligators occupy the waterways alongside the road, they occasionally stroll across the highway, making it their personal “alligator alley.”

Alligator Alley is a toll road. It costs $2.50 per car to drive from one coast to the other. Initially built as a two lane road (Florida State Hwy 84) in the 1960s, it was widened to four lanes between 1986 and 1992. The improvements added many bridges which were designed to let both water and wildlife pass underneath. The bridges eased some of the negative environmental impact of a highway through this remote area filled with wildlife, especially for the state’s population of the Florida panther, an animal more severely endangered today than the alligator.

Photo of cypress swamp in the Everglades from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Big_cypress.jpg Map http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Alligator_Alley_map.png

Alligator Alley

Florida

Florida

Alligator Alley