MacArthur Causeway
The downtown Miami skyline across Biscayne Bay, a live webcam with boat traffic and cruise ships passing.
About this view
The MacArthur Causeway carries six lanes across Biscayne Bay between downtown Miami and Miami Beach, and this camera looks out on the postcard version of the city: the downtown towers stacked behind open water, the cruise terminals of Dodge Island off to one side. A causeway has crossed here since 1920, when it opened as the County Causeway; it took MacArthur's name in 1942.
The bay is the busiest part of the frame. Sportfishers, sightseeing catamarans and jet skis cross it all day, the causeway keeps up its own two-way traffic between the mainland and the beach, and on departure afternoons the cruise ships slide out from behind the island, briefly making the whole skyline look small.
Miami runs on Eastern time, and this 24/7 live cam earns its keep at both ends of the day: sunrise puts the light behind the towers, and after dark downtown lights up across the water while the causeway becomes two rivers of headlights. Winter is the clear, dry season; summer afternoons build the thunderheads that made this skyline a photographer's subject in the first place.
