2 Fast 2 Furious | South Miami Avenue Bridge — The Gap Over the River

This is the jump. With the bascule leaves rising over the Miami River, Brian and Roman put the Skyline and the Evo across the opening gap while a pursuing car misjudges the run and drops. The bridge is South Miami Avenue's crossing of the river, downtown between Third and Sixth Streets — a working drawbridge that lifts for real traffic several times a day. Sailboats, tugs, and the small rusted freighters that still load Caribbean cargo a few hundred metres upstream.

The stunt was rigged rather than driven blind, but the bridge is genuine and so is the river beneath it. Walk down to the riverwalk on the north bank and wait. When the warning bells start and the barriers drop, the road you were standing beside becomes two steel ramps angled at the sky and the geometry of the scene assembles itself in front of you without a single car involved.

Traffic backs up. Somebody leans on a horn. Then the leaves fold flat again and the moment is finished, which is roughly how long the jump lasts on screen.

Photo: the neighbouring Brickell Avenue bascule bridge over the Miami River, by Wally Gobetz (Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).