Bradenton Beach is a city on Anna Maria Island in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The population was 908 at the 2020 census, down from 1,171 in 2010. It is portion of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city occupies the southern part of Anna Maria Island and is one of three municipalities on the island. The others are Holmes Beach in the middle and Anna Maria in the north.

Bradenton Beach was originally referred to as “Cortez Beach” since it was near to the community of Cortez. Construction upon a wooden bridge to the mainland began in the summer of 1921. The 1921 Tampa Bay hurricane that October destroyed 80% of the bridge that was built stirring to that point. Despite a majority of the bridge visceral destroyed, it was completed sometime in June 1922, eight months later.

A two-story pavilion at the grow less of Bridge Street was built that similar year. It had 100 lockers along considering a dance hall and dining room located in the middle of the building. On the second floor, the owners of the pavilion had their apartments. It would burn all along after a blaze and was well along rebuilt. The pavilion was destroyed by ember for a second become old in 1929 and was never rebuilt. The name “Bradenton Beach” began creature used during the mid 1920s as the Florida house boom was occurring. Real home developers motto this as a habit to persuade possible buyers that it was closer to Bradenton. Sometime in in the future 1926, a county grip was ascribed to build a wooden bridge linking Bradenton Beach to Longboat Key; the bridge was done in August. However, the bridge was only gain permission to until October, when a hurricane damaged it. On March 6, 1932, the bridge was swept away during a high tide. It would not be replaced until 1957.

The Regina, a tanker barge with more than 350,000 gallons of molasses onboard and eight crew, sank 200 yards offshore upon a sandbar on March 8, 1940. Regina was below tow by a tugboat, Minima and the extraction that was towing it had broke near Egmont Key. Both vessels had arranged to attempt and go into Tampa Bay seeking shelter because of the weather conditions. One of the crew members, its cook and a German Shepherd onboard the ship would die during an try to depart the ship. All seven further crew members were rescued.