LeJeune Road

LeJeune Road, (pronounced "Luh-JOO-n" Road), also known West 42nd Avenue, is a north-south street that runs west of downtown Miami in Miami-Dade County, Florida. According to Joaquin Roy, a highly regarded professor from the University of Miami in his 1989 book "The Streets of Coral Gables", Le Jeune Road was named after Charles LeJeune (b.1878 in Belgium) who came to Florida around 1900 and acquired 140 acres (0.57 km²) of coral rock land on which he used dynamite to create tillable soil, and then cultivated orange, grapefruit and lime groves. The road that was the boundary of his property became known as Le Jeune Road. In 1914, Charles Le Jeune sold his groves to (George) Merrick, developer of Coral Gables, Florida, for $1,700,000. It runs adjacent to the east side and crosses the original entrance/exit to Miami International Airport.

The southern terminus is Cartagena Plaza (Cartagena Circle) at the edge of the Coral Gables Waterway in the city of Coral Gables. It connects at the circle with South 72nd Street (Sunset Drive), Old Cutler Road, Cocoplum Road and Ingraham Highway.

From this point north it is West 42nd Avenue and goes a short distance through Coral Gables until it crosses Maya Avenue, where it then divides the city of Coral Gables from the city of Miami's Coconut Grove until just north of Rosaro Avenue, where it fully enters Coral Gables and is one of the city's main north-south roads.

It continues north through Coral Gables until a short distance after crossing Zamora Avenue, where it divides Coral Gables to the west with unincorporated Miami-Dade County to the east, until crossing Mendoza Avenue where it fully enters unincorporated Miami-Dade County. Then continues north through Miami-Dade County until crossing South 8th Street (US 41/Tamiami Trail), where it enters the city of Miami. It continues north through Miami until crossing the Tamiami Canal just south of the entrance to Miami International Airport, where it enters unincorporated Miami-Dade County.

After crossing Okeechobee Road north of the airport, it enters Hialeah as their East 8th Avenue. It is the easternmost major street in the city of Hialeah. Farther north it exits Hialeah at East 65th Street at Amelia Earhart Park and enters the city of Opa-locka where it is again West 42nd Avenue. It finally dead-ends inside Opa-locka Airport.