Florida State Road 968
State Road 968 (Florida), part of Flagler Street, is a 9.0-mile-long east-west highway in Miami. Along with the north-south Miami Avenue, Flagler Street is the baseline for which the bulk of the addresses for Miami-Dade County businesses and residences are determined. The current western terminus of SR 968 is an intersection with SR 973 (Galloway Road/Southwest 87th Ave); its easternmost 2.5 miles is a one-way pair (with eastbound traffic on Southwest First Street) ending at the eastern terminus of SR 968 at Biscayne Boulevard (US 1/SR 5). Formerly Florida State Road 954, Flagler Street received its current Florida Department of Transportation designation in 1983, when FDOT reassigned route numbers to various streets in southeastern Florida and removed the SR 968 designation from North Miami Boulevard (now Florida State Road 922).
While West Flagler Street extends to an intersection with Northwest (and Southwest) 118th Avenue near Sweetwater, SR 968's original western terminus was one mile to the east of it, at an intersection with SR 985 (Avenue of the Americas/107th Avenue). In 1987, FDOT truncated the route to its current configuration.
Flagler Street is an important commercial east-west highway through central Miami-Dade County, with a mixture of residential neighborhoods (featuring apartment complexes) and strip malls, the commercial presence increasing as SR 968 approaches downtown Miami. At the interchange with the Palmetto Expressway is the Mall of the Americas (formerly Midway Mall), one of the oldest enclosed shopping centers in the region. The Miami-Dade Auditorium, a concert hall, is located on SR 968 near SR 9 (Northwest 27th Avenue).
While Little Havana is most closely identified with "Calle Ocho" (Southwest Eighth Street) a half mile to the south, SR 968 traverses the heart of the section of Miami (Elián González lived in a house two blocks to the north while the 2000 custody/political asylum battle over him was going on). Restaurants, shops, and parks dot the sides of Flagler Street between Interstate 95 and SR 9; to the east of the Interstate was the center of downtown Miami, with government and business skyscrapers and Metromover towering over the road. Just to the east of the eastern terminus of SR 968 is Bayfront Park, featuring a scenic view of Biscayne Bay.