Belle Isle (Miami Beach)

Belle Isle
Neighborhood of Miami Beach
Belle Isle and the Venetian Causeway, circa 1960s
Nickname(s): Bull Isle (historic name)
Country	United States
State	Florida
County	Miami-Dade County
City	Miami Beach
Government
• Miami Beach Mayor	Philip Levine
• Miami-Dade County Commissioner	Bruno Barreiro
• House of Representatives	Cynthia A. Stafford (D)
• State Senate	Gwen Margolis (D)
• U.S. House	Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R)
Elevation	3 ft (0.9 m)
Population (2010)
• Total	1,755
Time zone	EST (UTC-05)
ZIP Code	33139
Area code(s)	305, 786

Belle Isle is a neighborhood of South Beach in the city of Miami Beach on a barrier island in Biscayne Bay, Florida, United States. It is the easternmost of the Venetian Islands, a chain of artificial islands in Biscayne Bay in the cities of Miami and Miami Beach. It is home to apartment buildings, a portion of the Venetian Causeway, a city of Miami Beach park, and a hotel. It is between Rivo Alto Island and the main barrier island of Miami Beach.

Belle Isle was originally called "Bull Isle", and was later renamed. Unlike the other Venetian Islands, Belle Isle is not completely artificial. Like the Sunset Islands, Belle Isle was originally a rough mangrove hammock island sitting in north Biscayne Bay near the Miami barrier islands, before the use of the term "Miami Beach".

Before fruit farmer John S. Collins partnered with the wealthy investor Carl G. Fisher to build the Collins Bridge from Miami in 1913, the new luxury properties under development in Miami Beach and Collins' large avocado orchards were inaccessible except by ferry boat. When Collins dug the Collins Canal, work crews deposited dredged sand around the rough island at the mouth of the canal, increasing its land mass and defining its shape. The "improved" island, now cleared of mangroves and platted into small parcels of land for single-family homes, extended into Biscayne Bay and allowed Collins and Fisher to build a relatively short wooden bridge across the bay by running the road over Belle Isle. The gateway to Miami Beach earned a reputation as an enclave for fashionable millionaires, such as Joseph H. Adams, whose sprawling estate occupied the southeast corner of the island.