As we (once again) experience road construction near the Koreshan State Historic Site, we thought it would be a good idea to look back. For anyone who is around these parts of late, you know what we mean. US-41 is undergoing extensive construction, and will be doing so for some time to come. I want to repeat a previous post.
For the Koreshans who lived a a different time, travel on roads and bridges was a different kind of adventure. In the “Community Current Events” column from September 1927, Dennis Richards wrote:
Florida is building highways so rapidly it is always impossible to say from day to day what the mileage of hard-surfaced roads is. …Florida now has approximately 9,500 miles of highway over which automobiles may be driven at high speed.”
Of course, we now have about 122,000 miles of highway in Florida and “high speed in 1927 meant going about 95 mph at the Indianapolis Speedway. Of course they do that on I-75.
Richards talked about crossing the Gandy Bridge, connecting Tampa and St. Petersburg. It was built in 1924 and shortened the distance between the two cities from 42 to 19 miles.
Closer to home, Richards also talks about traveling over to Pine Island with Allen Andrews, Laurie Bubbett and Harry Manley. They were enjoying the ride over the new road which had been recently opened to the public. He commented that the citrus groves on Pine Island were nearly immune from frost and that they required no spraying for scale and other pests because of the action of the salt air.