Florida State Road 777

State Road 777 (SR 777) and County Road 777 (CR 777) are together a 13.5 mi route near Englewood and North Port, Florida, United States. The route is locally known as East Dearborn Street in Englewood and River Road from Englewood north to Interstate 75 (I-75). The route is county controlled south of the Tamiami Trail (US Highway 41, US 41), and is SR 777 from there north to I-75.

County Road 777
CR 777 begins in central Englewood at an intersection with SR 776 (Indiana Avenue). From its terminus, East Dearborn Street is a four-lane divided highway running east though Englewood. The road also runs west of SR 776 as West Dearborn Street, a local road.

Just outside of Englewood at Pine Street, East Dearborn Street becomes River Road and turns northeast as a two-lane road. Near the Myakka State Forest, River Road turns north paralleling the Myakka River and enters North Port. River Road then comes to an intersection with US 41 (Tamiami Trail), where CR 777 becomes SR 777.

State Road 777
SR 777 begins at an intersection with US 41, carrying River Road as a six-lane divided highway. The road passes through some homes and narrows to a two-lane undivided highway before approaching Blue Heron Park and intersecting West Villages Parkway. The state road heads northwest through some developments, crossing Center Road, Jelks Preserve, and Venice Avenue. After crossing Venice Avenue, it becomes a four-lane divided highway. SR 777 reaches its northern terminus at the interchange with I-75. The road's end of pavement is just north of the interchange, south of Curry Creek.

History
The road has been shown on Florida's official transportation maps (formerly known as road maps) as far back as 1917. On the 1917 State Road Department (SRD) Map, the state road spanned Englewood to present-day North Port. The road was a portion of "Road Number 12" as designated by the State Road Department, a precursor to Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT).

The state road from Englewood to North Port at present-day Playmore Road was an early alignment of the Tamiami Trail (US 41) along with Englewood Road (via Old Englewood Road) to the northwest. The current route of US 41 from North Port to South Venice was built in the 1930s, bypassing Englewood. The route was then designated SR 311, which served as a loop of US 41 spanning from Englewood to North Port and back northwest to Venice.

After the 1945 Florida State Road renumbering, the route was designated SR 777, which spanned from SR 775 in Englewood to US 41 in North Port, then northwest paralleling the Myakka River to Venice Avenue (known then as Venice Farm Road). The portion of SR 777 north of US 41 was transferred to the county sometime in the 1950s. The southern portion from US 41 to SR 775 was transferred to the county sometime between 1978 and 1979. In the early 1960s, the southern end of SR 777 was truncated by a quarter of a mile when SR 775 (now SR 776) was realigned along Indiana Avenue.

Interstate 75 opened through Sarasota County in 1981. As part of the highway, River Road was extended from Venice Avenue north to connect with the new freeway. The Florida Department of Transportation also built a rest area for I-75 on the northeast corner of the interchange with River Road extending a short distance north to provide access. This rest area was closed and abandoned in 1990 and remnants of it remain today.

In 2018, Sarasota County accepted the state's $40 million offer to swap responsibility for several roads (i.e. road swap) in exchange for the state to perform major improvements on River Road, one of the county’s main thoroughfares and vital evacuation routes. FDOT handed over the responsibility of a portion of SR 758, known locally as Siesta Drive and Midnight Pass Road, west of US 41. The county will be responsible for ongoing maintenance of those roadways, although the state would still maintain the bridges to Siesta Key. The road transfer was completed in September 2020.

Future
In August 2021, FDOT awarded a contract with Stantec and de Moya Group to widen River Road from US 41 to Interstate 75. The road will be widened to a six-lane divided highway from US 41 to north of Center Road and a four-lane divided highway from north of Center Road to the interstate interchange, with the right-of-way of a six-lane divided highway. Construction began in February 2022, and the road widening is projected to be finished by mid-2025.