Heartbreakingly Cool Footage of Downtown in 1942

[Metro Jacksonville]

Heartbreakingly Cool Footage of Downtown in 1942



Old 16mm vacation films were recently discovered at a garage sale in San Jose, CA by Tim Peddy and converted to digital courtesy of The California Pioneers of Santa Clara County. It depicts a train ride from California to Florida via New York City, ultimately arriving in Pensacola via Jacksonville.  Check out the streets and bridges of downtown during its heyday!

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2016-sep-heartbreakingly-cool-footage-of-downtown-in-1942

[heights unknown]

(Sigh)...and wow. Bustling, hustling, busy, Jacksonville back then. Main Street Bridge looked new. There was hardly any residential in the Atlantic Boulevard area. A city with so much potential. We should have been equal to Atlanta or even some other larger major city by now. Consolidation masked our problems, it didn't fix them. Jax was the premier first class Florida City back then. Tampa and Miami were 2nd and third respectively. Without consolidation we'd probably be lower than number 3...probably not because I'm sure we would have annexed more neighborhoods and areas around the old city limits.Yes, it is heartbreaking; a downtown with nothing, absolutely barely nothing going on. We'll all be dead before anything else significantly happens unless our leaders really rally behind the city and downtown like they should to ensure that we are the almost 1 million population city that we say we are (thanks to consolidation).