Streetcar Tracks located on Main Street

[spuwho]

Per Jacksonville.com:

Streetcar rails uncovered in Hogan Creek bridge replacement project

Under a foot of concrete, a construction crew uncovered streetcar rails where North Main Street crosses over Hogan Creek to Springfield.

The rail could possibly be part of the first electric streetcar railway in Florida. Around the turn of the 20th century, mule or horse-drawn streetcars transported people on a fixed track around Jacksonville. Robert Mann, author of Streetcars of Florida's First Coast, said Jacksonville contained between 60 and 65 miles of streetcar track by the 1930s.

He helped to identify the rails as part of streetcar system when the Florida Department of Transportation alerted him to the construction crew's discovery. FDOT District Two Cultural Resources Manager Terri Newman said that the rails were uncovered in mind-August during preliminary construction work on the concrete bridge replacement project. Work has stopped since then to evaluate how much of the rails are inside the concrete bridge over Hogan Creek.

Newman said FDOT used Ground Penetrating Radar to get a better picture of what's under the surface and expects results from that radar within the next week. The project is in the review process for design plans, and will include data from the Ground Penetrating Radar. They are also gathering information about the rails — what line they were a part of, when it was installed, if Main Street was the original location for the tracks — before starting on construction.

"These lines are what we would today call multimodal corridors," said Mann. "The modern city chasing its tail saying we need complete streets, we need multimodal corridors. We had them."

Senior City Planner Joel McEachin said that the find is significant because it uncovers another piece of the city's history. Other pieces of streetcar rail have been uncovered in past construction projects downtown, such as the Brooklyn area of Riverside Avenue and other parts of Main Street.

McEachin and FDOT are working with Springfield Improvement Association and Archives to transport and preserve the rails. Chris Farley and Jeff Gardner, archivists with the association, have already examined the rails on site.

Farley said the association is still discussing how to display the rails. Right now, it has been looking into preserving the rails and displaying them on the center median of the concrete bridge the same way the rails were laid out when Streetcars were in operation.

It will take some time to display them. She anticipates the process to restore the rails to take a least a couple of months.

However, she is patient. She's excited to restore part of once was a central form of transportation in Springfield.

"It's incredible history. It's so much part of Springfield," said Farley.

[Kerry]

Since this construction disrupts my driving pattern I hope whatever they do, they do it soon.  As for what to do with the track, I like the idea of imbedding them in the new bridge so people will get a constant reminder of what Jax has lost from the past, and what we are missing out on today.  I guess it is a form of City Shaming (which I guess is still okay to do for now).

[spuwho]

Since this construction disrupts my driving pattern I hope whatever they do, they do it soon.  As for what to do with the track, I like the idea of imbedding them in the new bridge so people will get a constant reminder of what Jax has lost from the past, and what we are missing out on today.  I guess it is a form of City Shaming (which I guess is still okay to do for now).

I dont know Kerry, this town has been "shamed" quite a bit in the past 25 years and it doesnt seem to change a great many things.

[strider]

FYI:  When they revamped Main Street 7 to 9 years ago, one of the time consuming issues was that they found street car rails still buried, just like they did here. It also illustrated how long it had truly been since the infrastructure had been renewed. One would think there would have been excitement over the rails then, but there really wasn't. I do not believe one piece was saved then. Just interesting how things...change.

[thelakelander]

Here's a few pictures and some information on the line's history from last week:



http://www.moderncities.com/article/2016-aug-streetcar-tracks-uncovered-under-springfields-main-st

FYI:  When they revamped Main Street 7 to 9 years ago, one of the time consuming issues was that they found street car rails still buried, just like they did here. It also illustrated how long it had truly been since the infrastructure had been renewed. One would think there would have been excitement over the rails then, but there really wasn't. I do not believe one piece was saved then. Just interesting how things...change.

I believe the rails were gone. We took a few pictures and put together an article on that one:



http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-oct-streetcar-artifacts-uncovered-in-springfield

http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Neighborhoods/Springfield-Main-Street-2009/

[strider]

I had heard rails, but perhaps just ties as it has been a while!  Maybe in a previous Main st redo they took the rails for the metal. Plus, I just remembered that I heard about the rails when they were doing the first four blocks not the last 8 done in the second phase, which started what, 2 to 4 years after they finished the first four blocks?

[spuwho]

I asked if they found any rail/ties at the Overland Bridge/Atlantic Boulevard construction zone.

They said those were all ripped out by the FEC in the 1950's when I-95 was built.  Ock probably knows for sure.