Touring Jacksonville's S-Line Urban Greenway

[spuwho]

Hmm, since the S-Line pre-dates the communities around it, I wonder who would be the rightful owner?

Depends on Florida property law.  Was the original line a ROW or did they own it outright prior to the city coming around it?

City records will probably show they now hold the deed outright, but someone could have challenged the transfer in court back when it occurred.

My guess is that it was a Florida Land Grant, not an easement, and therefore belonged to the railroad outright prior to transfer to the city. Most of the early railroads in Florida got land grants, as Tallahassee was pretty outgoing in trying to get railroads to locate here in the late 1800's.

If a railroad leaves it grant behind, I would think it would revert back to the state.

[thelakelander]

Really?

I think rails to trails is great...I think many if not most cities have them crossing town by now...only a few are really "great", but all can be useful to some.  Frankly I'm a little perplexed as to why the Beltline in Atlanta is never studied or mentioned on this site whenever the S-Line comes up (I've put in a few words because that was one of the projects that kept me sane in Atlanta when I lived there! and I ended up a volunteer for a few years).  No offense to any other examples, but nothing else holds a candle in any way to the Beltline, and if you want to see what the potential is, how it's done, the effort needed, how it started, why it's successful, the massive economic development it's spurred (which imo actually outshines many full LRT systems being built), then you don't need to look any further than 377 miles away, practically in your own southern backyard.

Coming soon, Simms3....

[AviationMetalSmith]

I remember, back in 1991 or '92, I was looking at maps, and I found the North end of the Greenway, and the abandoned Railroad Right-of-Way , heading Southeast from that point for about two miles... But on examination, the overgrowth of foliage was so thick, it was impossible to hike the route. Not even with a machete.
I'm glad the Rail-Trail finally got built. It must have taken half a dozen men with chainsaws to clear the vegetation, I would like to hear more about the work that went into it.