Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway

Historic passenger depot at Boca Grande

Large amounts of phosphate, a valuable commodity used in agriculture, were discovered along the Peace River in the late 1800s. Transporting phosphate by ship down the Peace River was a slow and tedious process due to the river levels being low at some times. The Florida Southern Railway (which later became part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad) operated tracks to Punta Gorda along the south side of the river, and it was also used to some extent to transport phosphate to its dock in Punta Gorda for shipment.

Boca Grande Pass, a natural deepwater inlet at the south end of Gasparilla Island, was seen as the perfect place for a deepwater port to simplify the process of shipping phosphate. The Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway was first chartered in 1897 as the Alafia, Manatee, and Gulf Coast Railroad. Peter B. Bradley, who created the American Agricultural Chemicals Company, secured the charter for the line in 1905, and renamed it the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway.[1]

By 1907, the line was completed between Boca Grande and Arcadia, where repair shops were located, as well as a connection to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's Lakeland—Fort Myers Line (the former Florida Southern Railway). The Boca Grande port included a 3,000 foot dock for loading large vessels directly from railroad cars. In addition to transporting freight, it also provided passenger service to Boca Grande, which was famous for its world-class tarpon fishing. Three passenger depots existed on Gasparilla Island, with one at the north end of the island, one in downtown Boca Grande (which still stands), and one at the port at the south end of the island where boat connections could be made to nearby Useppa Island. The line ran between Gasparilla Island and the mainland on a two-mile long causeway consisting of three trestles over Gasparilla Sound. The trestles contained two steel swing spans built by Virginia Iron Works to accommodate vessel traffic.[1] The northernmost trestle's swing span would later be replaced by a bascule bridge.[2]

Northern terminus of the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway (right) in Mulberry as seen in 2021.

By 1910, the line was extended north beyond Arcadia into the Bone Valley where a connection to the Seaboard Air Line Railroad's new spur from Plant City to Agricola was established. This connection would become known as Bradley Junction (named after founder Peter B. Bradley).[3] In addition to penetrating more phosphate-rich regions of the state, the extension provided a shortcut for trains traveling between Boca Grande and Tampa. A further extension north from Bradley Junction to phosphate mines in Mulberry was later built around 1912, which provided additional connections to both the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (via their Bone Valley Branch) and Seaboard Air Line Railroad (via their Valrico Subdivision). This final extension would also serve Pierce, a defunct town where a phosphate drying plant once existed.[4]

In the early 1900s, the Railway produced an advertising brochure for its Gasparilla Inn near the end of the line on Gasparilla Island that claimed that the area was once home to José Gaspar, a renegade Spanish pirate who was supposedly based in Charlotte Harbor when Florida was still Spanish territory. The brochure claimed that Gaspar had been the most feared buccaneer of his generation during his 40-year career spent ravaging shipping and taking hostages across the Gulf of Mexico to the Spanish Main, that he named most of the islands in the Charlotte Harbor area, and had left an as-yet undiscovered treasure cache in the vicinity of the Gasparilla Inn upon his dramatic death in battle.[5] The tale was unsupported by any evidence, and Pat Lemoyne, the publicist who wrote it, freely admitted in later years that "there was not a true fact in it" and that it was simply an advertisement written in the style of a romantic adventure to attract the attention of tourists.[6] Still, the colorful legend of Gaspar presented in the brochure helped inspire the annual Gasparilla Pirate Festival in nearby Tampa and has led to ongoing confusion as to Gaspar's historic authenticity.[7]

Bridge over Peace River near Arcadia

In 1925, the line was leased by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, who then fully purchased the line from the American Agricultural Chemicals Company a year later. This gave Seaboard direct access to the Boca Grande port.[8] Almost immediately after the purchase, Seaboard began construction of a branch line from Hull (near Fort Ogden) to Fort Myers and Naples (via their Seaboard-All Florida Railway subsidiary). That route was completed in 1927.[9]

Empty phosphate train on the still-active segment of the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway near Agrock Yard in 2020

Upon completion of the Fort Myers extension, the Seaboard Air Line operated the former Charlotte Harbor and Northern in three segments. Track from Mulberry to Bradley Junction was designated as the Agricola Subdivision. From Bradley Junction to Hull, the line was designated as the Fort Myers Subdivision (which also included Seaboard track north of Bradley Junction to Plant City and track to Fort Myers and Naples). Track south of Hull became the Boca Grande Subdivision.[10] Seaboard passenger trains provided service on the line to both Boca Grande and to Fort Myers and Naples (the latter destinations were provided by Orange Blossom Special and West Coast Limited). However, passenger service to Fort Myers ended in 1933 and track to there was abandoned by 1952. By then, the Boca Grande Subdivision designation was expanded all the way to Bradley Junction.

By 1940, two daily local passenger trains were still running the line to Boca Grande.[10] Passenger service to Boca Grande was discontinued in 1958 shortly after the opening of the Boca Grande Causeway, which was the last passenger service to ever operate on the line.

The Seaboard Air Line Railroad merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1967. The merged company became the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad.

Increased competition from the Rockport Terminal in the Tampa Bay area led to the closure of the Boca Grande Port in 1979.[11] Due to the closure of the port, the Seaboard Coast Line (which was in the process of being merged into CSX Transportation at the time) abandoned and removed the line from the port to just south of Arcadia in 1981.

Achan Subdivision
CSX Valrico Subdivision SVH 7.1 South Mulberry SVH 4.4 Achan Junction CSX Bone Valley Subdivision SVH 2.6 Pierce CSX Brewster Subdivision SVN 848.9 Agricola SVH 0.1 Bradley Junction CSX Brewster Subdivision
Note: Not to scale

The northernmost seven miles of the line (between Mulberry and Bradley Junction) is now CSX's Achan Subdivision.[12][13][14] The line still serves as a direct route from eastern Mulberry and Mulberry Yard to the Brewster Subdivision and Agricola spur, where more phosphate facilities are located. A historical marker for the ghost town of Pierce is located near the tracks on the town's former site.[4]

Track from Bradley Junction south to Arcadia is now part of CSX's Brewster Subdivision.[14] The Brewester Subdivision also includes track from Bradley Junction west to Edison Junction. Seminole Gulf Railway owns the southernmost two miles of the line in Arcadia, who also operates the connecting ex-ACL route from Arcadia south to Punta Gorda, Fort Myers, and Bonita Springs.

Boca Grande Bike Trail on former right of way on Gasparilla Island

Despite its abandonment in 1981, evidence of the line south of Arcadia can still be found on Gasparilla Island and Charlotte County. Most of the right of way on Gasparilla Island was purchased by a local entrepreneur and converted into the popular Boca Grande Bike Path in 1985, which was the first rail trail in the state of Florida. The Cape Haze Pioneer Trail was later built on the right of way between western Port Charlotte and Placida in the mid-2000s.

The most substantial remnant of the line is the historic Boca Grande passenger depot at Park and 4th Streets, which is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The depot was restored in the 1970s and today houses shops and a restaurant.

Southernmost Gasparilla Island trestle. It has since been converted to a fishing pier.

A number of bridges along the abandoned route also remain to this day as well, the most notable of which is the causeway over Gasparilla Sound that connected the line to the island. The southernmost trestle is now a fishing pier as is the northernmost trestle up to the abandoned drawbridge tower.[15] The rest of the causeway and trestles, which remain just to the south of the Boca Grande Causeway, are now completely abandoned. The center trestle's swing span is still in place and is locked open to facilitate boat traffic. The bascule span on the northernmost trestle was removed and reinstalled in 1988 over Reynolds Creek in Long Beach, New York on the Long Island Rail Road's Long Beach Branch, where it is still in service.[2]

Other remaining bridges include trestles over the Myakka River and Coral Creek, which have been converted into fishing piers.