Casting from the bridge where pond meets sound: the classic Beach Road pastime.
Lagoon Pond Road and Beach Road connect Vineyard Haven to Oak Bluffs via the $52M drawbridge, passing a 570-acre estuary, Wind's Up!, and MV Hospital.
Lagoon Pond Road and Beach Road are two separate roads meeting at Five Corners, Vineyard Haven's famous five-way intersection. Together with the Lagoon Pond Drawbridge, they form one of Martha's Vineyard's most scenic corridors, linking the ferry port to Oak Bluffs and on to Edgartown.
Filmed May 2021The island moves on: shops, signs and prices may differ from what you see here. The text of this guide was checked September 2026.
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Traffic stacking up along Beach Road in Vineyard Haven. A steady line of cars is a normal summer afternoon on this stretch.
It all meets at Five Corners, the island’s most famous tangle of roads, where Beach Road and Lagoon Pond Road come together by the harbor.
Lagoon Pond Road runs south from Five Corners along the western shore of Lagoon Pond, passing the Vineyard Haven Post Office and climbing to the Martha's Vineyard Museum at 151 Lagoon Pond Road, housed in a former 1895 Marine Hospital looking out over the pond and Vineyard Sound. The road is about a half-mile long, entirely within Tisbury.
Beach Road runs east from Five Corners along the harbor waterfront, crosses the drawbridge into Oak Bluffs, and continues all the way to Edgartown, roughly 9 miles total. The Vineyard Haven segment to the drawbridge is about a half-mile. Beyond Oak Bluffs, Beach Road enters its most famous stretch along Joseph Sylvia State Beach, and past the Jaws Bridge. A flat, paved, separated bike path runs roughly 6 miles alongside the OB-to-Edgartown section.
Lagoon Pond is a tidal saltwater estuary (not a freshwater pond despite its name) spanning roughly 570 acres, split between Tisbury and Oak Bluffs. It connects to Vineyard Haven Harbor through a single inlet spanned by the drawbridge. Mean depth is 9.3 feet with a 1.8-foot tidal range.
At its southern tip, the Richard F. Madeiras Herring Run (built 1991) connects to Upper Lagoon Pond, where tens of thousands of river herring migrate each spring to spawn, drawing striped bass and bluefish. The Martha's Vineyard Shellfish Group operates the Richard C. Karney Solar Hatchery on the Tisbury shore, the first public solar shellfish hatchery in the United States, producing an average of 20 million shellfish seed per year since 1980. The whole chain from hatchery to raw bar is in our shellfish guide.
Shellfishing is active. Bay scallops are the star: on opening weekend each October, hundreds of scallopers converge on the pond. Quahogs and soft-shell clams are also harvested. Tisbury permits cost $40 for residents, $400 for non-residents, with a $25 weekly option. For more on island fishing and shellfishing, see our complete guide.
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The Lagoon Pond Drawbridge, formally the Korean and Viet Nam Veterans Memorial Bridge, opened November 24, 2015, replacing an aging 1935 structure. Total cost: $51.8 million, the most expensive piece of infrastructure on Martha's Vineyard. Named one of Roads and Bridges magazine's Top 10 Bridge Projects for 2016.
The first drawbridge at this location opened in March 1871, shortening the route between Vineyard Haven and Oak Bluffs from 7 miles to about 2. The current structure spans 350 feet with a 50-foot bascule span that opens to 75 degrees in roughly 90 seconds, carrying up to 14,000 vehicles per day in summer.
Summer opening schedule (May 15–Sep 15): Five daily windows: 8:15–8:45 a.m., 10:15–11:00 a.m., 3:15–4:00 p.m., 5:00–5:45 p.m., and 7:30–8:00 p.m. Outside these windows: 4 hours' notice. Off-season: 24 hours' notice. Boaters contact VHF channels 09 and 69.
Watching the drawbridge rise for tall sailboats is a favorite activity at adjacent Eastville Point Beach and Drawbridge Park, which features walkways under the bridge, picnic tables, and views of both the harbor and the pond.
Wind’s Up has rented boards and boats on this shore since 1962; the calm ponds are the island’s classroom for windsurfing and paddling.
Wind's Up! at 199 Beach Road has been launching boats from Lagoon Pond since 1962, founded by John Cassel as "Selfin Sunfish Rental." Now run by the third generation of the Cassel family, they rent kayaks, canoes, sailboats, windsurfing equipment, SUPs, and surfboards with hourly to weekly rates. Lessons available in sailing, windsurfing, kayaking, and SUP. They launch directly onto the calm, protected waters of Lagoon Pond, ideal for beginners. Phone: (508) 693-4252.
Martha's Bike at 4 Lagoon Pond Road (right at Five Corners, walking distance from the ferry) has been renting bikes since 1989. Fleet includes hybrids, cruisers, e-bikes, tandems, kids' bikes, trailers, and baby seats. They offer island-wide delivery. Phone: (833) 362-7842. For more on cycling the island, see our bike routes guide.
Martha's Vineyard Hospital at 1 Hospital Road, Oak Bluffs, sits on a hilltop just past the drawbridge, the only hospital in Dukes County. Founded in 1921, it's a critical access hospital affiliated with Mass General Brigham, operating 31 beds. The current facility (completed ~2010) is visible from the ferry. The VTA bus stop "Beach Road at MV Hospital" is about 2 miles from downtown Vineyard Haven.
The Tisbury Market Place sign and brick walk along Beach Road, with the gas station across the way.
The road hugs the water the whole way: the harbor on one side, the Lagoon on the other, sailboats and the drawbridge in between.
Heading east from Five Corners: the Tisbury Marketplace shopping center, Wind's Up! with its colorful kayaks, then Lagoon Harbor Park, a linear park with benches, a boat launch, and views across the pond. A shared-use bike and pedestrian path runs parallel to Beach Road through this section.
Then the drawbridge. Drawbridge Park swoops around and beneath it with harbor views. Crossing into Oak Bluffs, Eastville Point Beach appears immediately: calm water, ferry views, sunsets. The hospital sits on the hilltop ahead. Continue toward Oak Bluffs center past East Chop (side trip to the lighthouse for the view), through to the gingerbread cottages, Flying Horses Carousel, and Ocean Park.
Whether you're renting a kayak to explore the lagoon, biking to State Beach, or watching the drawbridge rise for a sailboat at sunset, this is the island as most people picture it. Check our live webcams to see current harbor conditions.
Island tip of the dayInsiderNo. 84 of 86New tip at midnight, island time
A 502-foot breach opened at Norton Point on January 1, 2026, cutting the sand link between Katama and Chappaquiddick: the Chappy Ferry is once again the only way across, likely for years. OSV drivers should check current beach access with the town of Edgartown.
Joshua Slocum, first to sail alone around the world, spent his last years farming in West Tisbury and vanished from Vineyard Haven harbor in November 1909. The voyage, the farm called Fag End, the last departure, and what a visitor can actually see: the harbor, a marker stone by a country road, the museum's Slocum papers, and the book itself.
The red bus that gets the loudest cheer in the Edgartown Fourth of July parade belongs to Camp Jabberwocky, a tuition-free summer camp for people with disabilities that has run on the Vineyard since 1953. An islander's account of where it came from and what it is. For anything official, the camp's own site is the source.
Lake Tashmoo in Vineyard Haven hides a century of stories: the 1887 waterworks that watered the town, a golf course where a bull was a hazard, town baseball and the frozen winters when islanders raced ice boats.
Take a guided Jaws tour of Martha's Vineyard with local guide Mike Currid. Walk the real Amity Island in Edgartown and book the "Amity" Walking Tour.
A first-hand look at the Edgartown Historic Walking Tour and "Amity" Jaws Tour with Mike Currid of the Edgartown Tour Company: what to expect, what you'll learn, and how to book.
The complete guide to Vineyard Haven, Martha's Vineyard's year-round port town. Main Street shopping, Black Dog Tavern, Owen Park, and ferry terminal.
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