City of St. Augustine to remove lions from Bridge of Lions for almost three years

City of St. Augustine to remove lions from Bridge of Lions for almost three years

Finn Carlin

Sat, January 17, 2026 at 2:26 AM UTC

3 min read

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By the end of the month, the Bridge of Lions will have lost its lions, at least on the west end.

The city of St. Augustine hired a Green Cove Springs contractor to remove the iconic lions to make room for the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to replace the seawall along the Matanzas River. Action News Jax first told you last year when FDOT and the city were considering a $100,000 agreement to remove the lions.

The city told Action News Jax that the lions will be away from the bridge until December 2028, at the earliest, around the same time FDOT’s seawall replacement project is expected to be completed.

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“It will be very sad,” said Arosty, a frequent St. Augustine visitor who didn’t want to share his last name, “I think every other postcard about St. Augustine has those lions in it. When you come here and the lions are gone, good luck explaining that.”

The decision to move the lions isn’t getting all applause, but some feel like it’s necessary, as long as they see the lions returned.

“As long as they’re protected properly and we know they’re going back where they belong,” Tom Buchanan, a frequent St. Augustine visitor who lives in St. Simons Island, said.

Action News Jax has shared multiple reports about FDOT’s seawall replacement project with you over the last few years.

FDOT documents show that the chain-link seawall will be replaced with a short concrete barrier wall, instead, which is partly meant to prevent future flooding downtown.

“We’re just doing what we think is the right thing,” said Marcus Pinson, St. Augustine’s city project manager, “and that is to take [the lions] down and put them in a safe place while the construction is going on around them.”

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Pinson shared details about the removal of the lions with Action News Jax. He told us that the plinths of the lion statues, which are the bases that support the statues, have already been removed.

Metal barriers have been placed around the lions until next week, at which point Pinson said steel cages will be placed around the lions so that they can, eventually, be taken away from the bridge by construction cranes.

“It shouldn’t take more than three or four hours. You know, the actual physical removal of the lions, we are hoping it’s going to be maybe two hours,” Pinson said.

Pinson said the lions are being removed, mostly, to avoid the risk of being damaged while FDOT’s construction crews are replacing the seawall.

“If something happened [to them] during the seawall project, they’re irreplaceable, you know, basically,” Pinson said.

The city plans to remove the lions from the bridge on January 27th, which will cause the bridge to close starting at around 11:00 PM.

The city hasn’t shared where the lions will be kept while the seawall project is going on, but said that the statues will be rehabilitated during the time they are off the bridge.

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