In the game
In the second trailer a car rolls through a line of small white toll booths on a low bridge, the downtown towers standing behind them across the water. It lasts a few seconds and is one of the most closely located shots in the trailer. Fans matched it to the Venetian Causeway’s toll plaza, and the match is a clear one: the booths, the low concrete balustrade, the islands stepping away toward the Beach, and the skyline exactly where it should be.
It rests on the fact that only one Miami causeway has a toll plaza like that. The MacArthur and the Julia Tuttle are free, and the Rickenbacker’s plaza is bigger and faces the wrong way for that skyline. That leaves the Venetian.
Whether the game’s causeway follows the real island chain or just borrows the plaza, the shot does not say. We treat it as a match for the booths and the view, not the whole road.
The real place
The Venetian is the oldest causeway across Biscayne Bay. It opened in 1926, replacing the 1913 Collins Bridge, then the longest wooden bridge in the world and the reason Miami Beach exists as a resort. The road hops across six residential islands (Biscayne, San Marco, San Marino, Di Lido, Rivo Alto and Belle Isle) on a chain of low bridges, two of them drawbridges, and the whole thing is on the National Register.
Driving it is a strange, quiet 10 minutes: one lane each way, a low speed limit, palms and 1930s houses either side, the bay glittering between them. The detail a GTA fan will recognize is the toll plaza itself, at the Miami end, with the skyline filling the windshield the moment you turn around.
Go there
The best way to do it is by bike. The Venetian is the city’s favorite cycling and running route, free for bikes and walkers, with a sidewalk the full length. Rent a bike on either side and ride across at sunrise or sunset; the crossing is under three miles.
If you drive, there are no cash lanes any more. The toll is a few dollars by SunPass or toll-by-plate, and a rental company will add its own fee. The plaza is at the western end, so drive from Miami toward the Beach for the trailer’s view of the booths.
Belle Isle, the last island before the Beach, has a small park with a view back over the water. For food, you are 10 minutes from downtown or from Sunset Harbour on the Beach side, with dozens of cafes in the $15-30 range.
The honest warning: the causeway is old and has closed for long repairs before (the western bridge was out for most of 2015 and 2016), and the county has been planning a rebuild for years. Check that it is open before you plan around it. The drawbridges open for boats, so budget for a wait.
Nearby
- The downtown skyline: the backdrop to the toll booth shot.
- The causeway highway: the big, fast causeway a mile south; do both.
- The waterfront mansion pool party: the Venetian Islands are the quieter cousins of Star and Palm.
- Bayside: the Miami end is a 10-minute walk from the marketplace.
Updated September 12, 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us.