Tamiami Trail
Photo: Marc Averette
The Tamiami Trail is the southernmost 275 miles (443 km) of U.S. Highway 41 from State Road 60 in Tampa to U.S. Route 1 (SR 5) in Miami, Florida. The 165 mile (266 km) north-south section (hidden SR 45) extends to Naples, whereupon it becomes an east-west road (hidden SR 90) crossing the Everglades (and forming part of the northern border of Everglades National Park) before becoming Southwest Eighth Street in Miami-Dade County (“Calle Ocho” in the Little Havana section of Miami).
History
Construction on the north-south section was begun in 1915. The east-west portion was originally called the Miami-Marco Road. The following year, Miami’s Capt. James J. Jaudon first proposed a road connecting Florida’s Gulf and Atlantic coasts with an eye on developing his properties in the Everglades. The notion was seconded by Tampa’s E.P. Dickey, who also suggested a name, the Tamyami Trail [1], although D.C. Gillett of Tampa claimed to have originally suggested the name [2]. Tamiami is said to be a contraction of, Tampa to Miami. While support in Tampa for the proposed road was lacking, Miami Herald columnist William Stewart Hill would keep the idea alive whenever he felt that support was waning on the southeastern coast.
At the time, Lee County was a much larger county (Collier County was created out of Lee County in 1923, along with Hendry County). In 1919, due to financial reasons, Lee County was not able to complete their portion of the Tamiami Trail. Captain Jaudon had already purchased 207,360 acres (839 km²) of land, mostly in Monroe County. His company, the Chevelier Corporation, came to the rescue and offered to build a link of the highway through its holdings in Monroe County if Dade and Lee counties would agree to change the original route and re-route the Tamiami Trail through Monroe County. The proposal was accepted, the Chevelier Corporation began laying out a new route for the road, and in 1921 began construction on the new segment of the Tamiami Trail. This segment is today known as Loop Road (located in Big Cypress National Preserve).
In 1922, the State of Florida ran out of construction funds for the east-west portion. The following year, Barron Collier, an advertising mogul who recently diversified his holdings by investing in various types of businesses and millions of acres of southwest Florida wilderness, pledged that he would bankroll the completion of the Tamiami Trail; in return, the State legislature would establish a new county and name it after him [3] [4].
So in 1923, Collier County was created out of the southern portion of Lee County. Almost immediately contention arose over the change of the route. The sponsors of the new county advocated for the original route which was completely inside the boundaries of Collier County. The State Road Department agreed with Collier County. Even so, the Board of County Commissioners of Dade County gave their support to the Chevelier segment since so much money had already been invested. In fact, only a few miles of road were left to be completed.
Despite this protest, the State Road Department reinstated the original route of the Tamiami Trail to be completed. The already completed portion of roadway in Monroe County was accepted as a "South Loop" of the Tamiami Trail.
As construction of the north-south section resumed, Collier hired A. R. Richardson to be the head engineer of the Naples-to-Miami section (a few months later, A. W. Frederick replaced Richardson, who returned to the Everglades Drainage District), and construction started on the east-west stretch in 1923. An east-west canal was created using explosives; the fill dirt was used to construct the roadway [5].
In 1926, both the north-south section and the east-west stretch were designated U.S. Highways. Although the Trail was intended to be one road, the two sections received two different numbers: as each section is completed, the north-south portion would receive US 41 signs, and the east-west stretch would be designated US 94 upon completion (to comply with the route numbering guidelines of AASHTO).[6] In addition, both sections south of Fort Myers would receive the State Road 27 designation.
While a 1927 Rand McNally map indicated the southern terminus to be Fort Myers, US 41 signs were already up on the completed segment (south to Naples) in late 1926; US 94 signs made their appearances when the final section was completed in April 1928 [7]. The Tamiami Trail took 13 years, cost $8 million US, and used 2.6 million sticks of dynamite in its construction. The Tamiami Trail officially opened on April 25, 1928.
U.S. 94
Upon the completion of the Tamiami Trail, U.S. Highway 94 extended from the intersection of Ninth Street South and Fifth Avenue South in Naples (the southern terminus of US 41) to the intersection of Southwest Eighth Street and Brickell Avenue (US 1) in Miami. At the time it was considered a major achievement of engineering that was the only route from Naples (and, by extension, from Tampa) to the southeastern coast of Florida.
In 1945, a restructuring of Florida’s State Road system resulted in the removal of the SR 27 signs from US 94 and the assignment of the hidden Florida Department of Transportation designation State Road 90, which continues to be applied to the east-west stretch of highway to this day.
In 1949, the US 94 signage was replaced with US 41 signs, a decade after AASHTO modified its guidelines to discourage short (under 300 miles) US Routes that are entirely within one state.[8]
U.S. 41 and the Tamiami Trail after U.S. 94
In 1950s, the newly-configured US 41 was extended eastward and northward, first to downtown Miami along US 1 in 1950, then to Miami Beach along US 1 and SR A1A in 1953. In 1965, US 41 was rerouted as a bypass along unsigned SR 45A around Venice Gardens, while Business U.S. 41 signs grace the three-mile-long former alignment (which is still named Tamiami Trail).
This configuration of US 41 south of Tampa remained intact until the U.S. Highway was truncated to US 1 and Southwest Eighth Street in Miami in 2001 – ironically, the historic eastern terminus of US 94, former SR 27, and current SR 90 (westbound US 41 and SR 90 now begin one block to the north, on Southwest Seventh Street, as the easternmost 2.7 miles of the U.S. Highway now lie along a one-way pair).
While US 41 and SR 90 have not significantly changed since the 1960s (aside from the widening to the east of SR 997 in Miami-Dade County in the 1970s and in 2002-2005), its importance to motorists of southeastern Florida has changed since the opening of Alligator Alley to the north in 1968. Since then, traffic on the Tamiami Trail across the Everglades has lessened significantly, while urban sections of the road are now often congested.
In 1968, the Dade County Port Authority began construction on what was to become the world's largest airport. The Miami Jetport was located 36 miles west of Miami, just across the Collier County line. It was to be a six runway supersonic airport. The project would also transform the Tamiami Trail into a multi-lane expressway. Conservationists were worried about the impact an airport that size would have on the environment of the Everglades and Big Cypress. After several court hearings, a ban was placed upon further development. The widening of Tamiami Trail as a part of the Jetport had been stopped. One runway had already been completed; so the runway was allowed to be used as a flight training center. The runway remains today as a part of the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
Also in 1968, construction of an extension of Interstate 75 south from Tampa to Miami was started, with an eye toward routing the expressway along an upgraded Tamiami Trail from Naples to a soon-to-be completed SR 836 whereupon it would continue on the east-west highway to its intended terminus at an interchange with Interstate 95. Plans for the I-75 extension changed for two reasons:
- Alligator Alley needed upgrading as the then-narrow toll road was dangerous to both motorists and wildlife (most notably the Florida panther) alike; and
- State Road 836, with its left exits and narrow lanes, was not being built to Interstate Highway standards.
As a result, construction for a rerouted I-75 in southern Florida began in 1974, now with I-75 using Alligator Alley instead of US 41 to cross the peninsula, and the configured Interstate highway would not be completed for another 19 years.
Since then, the Tamiami Trail has been designated a National Scenic Byway by the United States Department of Transportation for its unique scenery in the Everglades and the Big Cypress National Preserve.
Plans for the Tamiami Trail
While in 1928, the Tamiami Trail was considered a feat of engineering, no one considered the potential damage to the Everglades by the roadway and the Tamiami Canal. Both have acted as a dam to block water flow from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay at the southern tip of the peninsula. As a result, the Everglades – the “River of Grass” - has had its water flow greatly diminished over the years, having a devastating effect on the ecology of the region. In the 1990s, a few canals were filled and additional culverts were constructed under US 41 to help regulate water flow.
Yet, according to the United States Army Corps of Engineers, this was only a partial solution to the problems of the Everglades and the Tamiami Trail [9]. In 2003, after considering a variety of plans involving the rebuilding of US 41/SR 90, the Corps recommended that a 3000-foot-long causeway be built near the Northeast Shark Slough northeast of Everglades National Park, remove all road fill that would otherwise be adjacent to the bridge, maintain the 57 culverts that are already in place, and maintain the appropriate water flow rate under the non-causeway portions of the Tamiami Trail crossing the Everglades [10]. Action on the part of the Corps of Engineers is pending funding by the United States government. This effort is being called the Everglades Skyway.
External links
- Endpoints of U.S. highways: U.S. Highway 41 and U.S. Highway 94