A. The route Dexter took following the truck of "The Ice Truck Killer".

Q. Where is it supposed to be on the show?

A. The streets of Miami.

Q. When did we see it on the show?

A. In Episode 1 (of Season 1), titled simply "Dexter".

The police have been looking for a large refrigerated truck, assuming that the "Ice Truck Killer" uses it during his murders.

One night, Dexter is sitting in his car at a stop light, when that refrigerated truck pulls up behind him, then slowly passes him.  Dexter can't believe it, and he follows the truck through the streets of Miami.

They end up stopping at a drawbridge. But the drawbridge is up and closed for repair, so the ice truck slowly turns around, and heads back towards Dexter with its high-beams blinding him. Then the driver of the ice truck tosses a severed head out of the truck, onto the hood of Dexter's car.

Q. What is it actually in real life?

A. Actual city streets and a real drawbridge.

Q. Where can I find it in real life?

A. In downtown Miami.

I've identified five spots seen along the route of the ice truck pursuit:






• Dexter first sees the Ice Truck:

Dexter is driving west on NE 2nd Street, when he stops at the intersection of 2nd & SE 1st Street, and the ice truck suddenly looms behind him.

The striped building you see behind him is (the north side of) the Bank of America Tower at International Place.

The bank tower's address is 100 SE 2nd Street, in Miami.

In the photo, the camera is looking south.

The elevated rail you see to the right is part of Miami's "Metromover" transit system.

Here is an aerial photo of the intersection. And here is a map link.





• Dexter follows the Ice Truck through Miami:
  
  
• The scene cuts to Dexter driving EAST on SE 1st Street, when the truck makes a right turn (south) onto , SE 2nd Avenue, a one-way street.
  
  You can briefly glimpse the sign of Ocean Bank, located on that corner at 200 SE 1st Street.

Here is an aerial photo of the streets. And here is a map link.




• In the next cut, we see Dexter following the truck NORTH on SE 1st AVENUE, when it turns right (east) on SE 1st STREET.
  
  You can briefly glimpse arches a sign for "Funky Urban Klothes" on the right side, which is at 110 SE 1st Street.

Here is an aerial photo of the intersection. And here is a map link.




• The next cut suddenly jumps a mile and a half north.
  
  Dexter is following the truck north on Biscayne Blvd, and it bears right (east) at a sign reading NE 14th Street. Another sign mentions 15th Street being next.
  
  You can briefly glimpse part of a sign for the “International University” just ahead. This is the Miami International University of Art & Design, at 1501 Biscayne Blvd.

Here is an aerial photo of the streets. And here is a map link.





• Dexter is confronted by the Ice Truck on a drawbridge:

The next cut takes us back south, closer to the earlier locations, about half a mile north of the Bank of America tower.

Dexter is still following the ice truck, as it drives southeast across a bridge.

He and the "Ice Truck Killer" find themselves at a dead end when they encounter a drawbridge which isn't working.

This is where the ice truck U-turns and the killer tosses a severed head at Dexter.

That drawbridge is called the Old Port Bridge, and it leads from the mainland of Miami, out across Biscayne Bay, to Dodge Island.

The bridge is located at the east end of NE 5th & 6th Streets, between the American Airlines Arena and the Bayside Market Place, in Miami.

Here is an aerial photo of the location. And here is a map link.

In the scene, they were headed southeast when they encountered the drawbridge (and the truck is heading back northwest when the killer throws the head at Dexter's car).

The Old Port drawbridge is a smaller, older bridge that runs next to (and is lower than) the newer / higher Port Blvd bridge - which is clearly visible, to the left, in the scene (see the second photo from the top on this page).

( The bridge is less than half a mile north of the Fountain where they find the rest of the body. )

Q. How the heck did you figure out where it was?

A. It wasn't easy, especially since I live in L.A. and have never been to Miami.  Thank God for Live Local aerial photos.

First, I spotted the partial International University sign in the scene, and used the Yellow Pages to track down that address. That let me know that they had shot the truck pursuit scenes in Miami (and not L.A.). Then I used the position of the elevated track of the MetroMover, to figure out which way he was driving.

Then I went looking for "striped" buildings with a MetroMover track running next to them, and I eventually located the Bank of America tower where he first encounters the truck. (The hardest part was figuring out what the name of the building was, after I found it.)

The drawbridge was trickier.  It turns out that Miami has a lot of drawbridges (over the river and across Biscayne Bay). But fortunately, in the view from the show, you could see that this particular drawbridge ran parallel to a wider, higher span. Fortunately, only one drawbridge matched that description.

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