Port Tampa Wharf
The Port Tampa Wharf was the port facility in Port Tampa , Florida in the United States .
history
For his planned ship connections of the Plant Steamship Company to Cuba and other ports in the United States and the Caribbean, the railway entrepreneur Henry B. Plant needed an efficient port. In Tampa, the western end point of the railway line of its Plant System , the water depth was insufficient.
Therefore, from 1885, he had a deep-sea port built at Black Point (or Gadsen Point) 14 kilometers away for $ 3 million . The port and the leading railway line began operating on February 5, 1888. In addition to the piers, a freight and passenger station, a repair workshop for freight wagons, warehouses, accommodation for the railway workers and a power station were built. The port offered space for 26 ships.
The hotels Port Tampa Inn for 85 guests and St. Elmo's Inn for 14 guests were built on wooden scaffolding on the heaped up around 1.6 kilometer long landing pier, directly at the station building.
In 1891 205 ships docked in the port and around 123,000 tons of goods were handled.
In 1898, a large part of the shipments of soldiers in the Spanish-American War to Cuba took place from this port .
After the expansion of the port in Tampa , Port Tampa quickly lost its importance for passenger steam shipping from 1910. The hotels were destroyed in hurricanes in 1921 and 1925.
On October 30, 1953, what was then the world's largest neon sign "Atlantic Coast Line Port Tampa Terminals" was put into operation by the successor company to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad plant system . The letters were 5.8 meters high and up to 4 meters wide. The 23 meter high and 118 meter wide advertising system consisted of 1,219 meters of red fluorescent tubes .
In 1892 the first wooden phosphate lifting systems were built. As a result, the port became an important hub for this raw material. That is why the handling facilities were continuously expanded. It was not until 1951 that the warehouses were torn down and the last conveyor belts on the pier in 1971, after the port in Rockport near Tampa began operations in 1969.
Today a large part of the port facilities has been demolished and the site is used as an industrial area.
literature
- Sandra Wallus Sammons: The Two Henrys . Henry Plant and Henry Flagler and Their Railroads. Pineapple Press Inc, 2010, ISBN 978-1-56164-456-8 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
- Steve Rajtar: A Guide to Historic Tampa . The History Press, 2007, ISBN 978-1-59629-253-6 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 27 ° 51 ′ 41.7 " N , 82 ° 32 ′ 46.2" W.