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| 1916 Florida State Archives/Florida Memory |
Known today for its beautiful beaches and tropical scenery, Fort Lauderdale was once considered gateway to the Everglades. There, it was hoped, farmers could prosper growing fruits and vegetables in its rich dark, mucky soil.
During the late 1800s, settlers established themselves a few miles west of the ocean on the banks of the New River, an eight-mile-long ribbon of water flowing east from the Everglades. It was considered a good vantage point to Florida's "river of grass." By the early 1900s, aspirations for farming in the Everglades were diminished by repeated flooding from tropical storms and hurricanes ... and failure to drain it after massive private and government efforts.
The focus shifted east, and included thoughts about tourism by 1914. The Las Olas Causeway opened in January, 1917 six years after the City of Fort Lauderdale was incorporated (1911). Fortunes were to be made on developing its beach area and waterway system.
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| 1916 - Florida State Archives/Florida Memory |
Sources:
Checkered Sunshine (Burghard and Weidling, University of Florida Press,1966)
Fort Lauderdale, The Venice of America (Gillis, Arcadia Publishing, 2004)
Fort Lauderdale Historical Society
Checkered Sunshine (Burghard and Weidling, University of Florida Press,1966)
Fort Lauderdale, The Venice of America (Gillis, Arcadia Publishing, 2004)
Fort Lauderdale Historical Society
Tags: early Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale history
