Intracoastal & Lake Trail

This is the western side of the Palm Beach barrier island — the edge that faces the Lake Worth Lagoon rather than the Atlantic. It is worth saying plainly at the outset: “Intracoastal / Lake Trail” is an informal way of describing that side of the island, not a platted subdivision or an officially delineated neighborhood. No authoritative source publishes boundaries for it, so this guide does not invent any. What gives the area a shared identity is the water it faces and the trail that runs along it.

The water itself is often misunderstood. Lake Worth Lagoon spans 20 miles from North Palm Beach to Ocean Ridge, where ocean water flows in through two inlets and mixes with fresh water draining from three major flood-control canals covering more than 350,000 acres. That mixture turns brackish, making the lagoon critical habitat for a wide range of plants and animals, and Palm Beach County describes it as the county’s largest estuary. The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway is the navigable channel cut through that estuary — alongside Palm Beach it runs roughly between mile markers 1021.8 and 1024.7.

The Lake Trail is the organizing feature on land. The Town describes it as a nearly six-mile route carrying cyclists, joggers and walkers from the Royal Park Bridge to the North End of the island, and notes that the nature, scenery and breeze off the Intracoastal make it a natural place to exercise. One rule worth knowing before you arrive: electric bicycles, motorized skateboards and other motorized vehicles are not permitted on the trail.

The lagoon side also holds the island’s most significant landmark. Whitehall, completed in 1902, is the 75-room, 100,000-square-foot Beaux Arts house Henry Flagler built as a gift for his wife, Mary Lily Kenan Flagler, designed by John Carrère and Thomas Hastings — both trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. It stands on Brelsford Point on the eastern bank of Lake Worth, with the Hotel Royal Poinciana, once the largest wooden structure in the world, to the north and the Palm Beach Inn — later renamed The Breakers — to the east. Whitehall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2000. It operates today as the Flagler Museum.

The island has an ocean side and a lagoon side; this is the lagoon side, facing west across the Lake Worth Lagoon toward West Palm Beach. Because the area is informally defined, it is better understood as an orientation — water to the west, the Lake Trail running along it — than as a bounded district.

All three bridges connecting Palm Beach to the mainland cross this side of the island. Working from north to south along the Intracoastal Waterway, they are the Flagler Memorial Bridge at mile 1021.8, the Royal Park Bridge at mile 1022.6, and the Southern Boulevard Bridge at mile 1024.7.

The Town of Palm Beach Marina sits on this side at 500 Australian Avenue, and Lake Drive Park fronts it. Bradley Park sits near the Flagler Memorial Bridge at the northern end of the developed lagoon frontage.

Because this is an informal area rather than a platted community, there is no authoritative published breakdown of its housing stock, and this guide does not estimate one. What distinguishes property here is orientation rather than product type: frontage on or proximity to the Lake Worth Lagoon, and access to the Lake Trail running along it.

For anyone buying with a boat, the practical constraints on this side of the island are unusually concrete. The Town of Palm Beach Marina accommodates vessels from 60 to 294 feet and has added wider and deeper slips for superyachts. Just as important are the fixed vertical clearances on the three bridges at mean high water: the Royal Park Bridge is the lowest at 21 feet, the Flagler Memorial Bridge is 24 feet, and the Southern Boulevard Bridge is 25 feet. Those numbers, and the bridges’ opening schedules, determine what can move where and when — worth checking against any vessel before you commit to a berth.

On pricing, the honest position is the same one we take across this site: no authoritative public source publishes home sale prices for the Town of Palm Beach or ZIP 33480, so no such figure appears here. The one authoritative, dated figure that does exist measures something different — the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser recorded the Town of Palm Beach’s total taxable value at $34,666,851,802 on the 2025 final tax roll, up 8.20% from the prior year. That is the assessed value of the entire town’s tax base, not the price of any home, and it should not be read as one. For actual valuation, Christian works from verifiable comparables and will show you the source and date behind every figure.

Life on this side of the island is organised around the water and the trail. The Lake Trail gives a continuous, largely uninterrupted route for walking and cycling along the lagoon, and the Town Marina, the parks that front the water, and the Flagler Museum are all within the same corridor.