For years, the Henry E. Kinney Tunnel the only one in Florida ... and now?

Henry E Kinney Tunnel

Federal Highway (U.S. 1) and the New River in Fort Lauderdale

By Jane Feehan 

A bridge carrying U.S  1 over Fort Lauderdale's New River opened in August, 1926. As the city grew so did its traffic. At times it took as long as 45 minutes to get from one side of the bridge to the other, causing backups along U.S. 1 and into downtown. It was known as the worst traffic jam in the state.

There were discussions in the 1940s, before the explosive growth of the following decade, to replace the Federal Aid Highway Bridge with a tunnel or new bridge. By the early ‘50s battle lines were drawn between advocates for a tunnel, headed by Miami News Broward edition editor Henry E. Kinney, and those for a bridge, led by Fort Lauderdale News owner R.H. Gore. Gore owned property near what would be affected by a right-of-way for the proposed tunnel. For years the debate raged unsettled.

Not until 1958 was the political imbroglio settled by a referendum. By a narrow margin, the tunnel solution won. Work started on what would take 865 days to complete 864 feet of tunnel  for $6.5 million - $2 million more than estimated during the early days of the debate. It opened December 9, 1960.

In 1986 the 35-foot deep New River Tunnel was re-named the Henry E. Kinney Tunnel, honoring the man who fought for its construction.

It was once the only vehicular tunnel in Florida but two road tunnels operate at Walt Disney World in Kissimmee. A "tunnel" through a traffic interchange near the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport was recently completed and referred to as a tunnel but some may not consider it as such. In August, 2014, a 4,200-ft. undersea tunnel was bored under Biscayne Bay and connects MacArthur Causeway on Watson Island to PortMiami on Dodge Island. It has helped ease downtown Miami truck traffic. 

Some still claim Fort Lauderdale's Henry E. Kinney is  the only tunnel in Florida. Perhaps for that type of tunnel ...

*Note: Major work on the tunnel, its surrounds and the top, began in September 2021 to make way for an expanded plaza or park on the top. The project was expected to be completed late 2023 but not finished until mid 2024. 

Copyright © 2019, 2015, 2022, 2024 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Other sources: 

 Gillis, Susan. Fort Lauderdale, The Venice of America. Charleston:  Arcadia Publishing, 2004.

Weidling, Philip J., Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_River_Tunnel

Port Miami

 Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, tunnels on U.S. 1, Florida tunnels, Florida history, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, Fort Lauderdale in the 1950s, Fort Lauderdale in 1960

Disaster at sea: dozens perish in SS Yarmouth Castle fire 1965

* Photo in public domain

By Jane Feehan

Eighty seven people, including 27 members of a Pompano Beach senior center, went down with the SS Yarmouth Castle November 13, 1965 after it caught fire 60 miles from Nassau. Three others died from burns days later. The disaster, which claimed local and national headlines, resulted in tighter marine safety laws.

The aftermath of the tragedy, like so many others, revealed what could have, should have happened but did not.  There were 376 passengers and 176 crewmen aboard the ship that left Miami the day before. It caught fire so fast that a distress call could not be sent. Only four of the 12 or 13 lifeboats could be launched, sprinklers did not activate, fire doors did not close and an alarm did not sound. 

The ship went down in five hours. Survivors were picked up by the nearby Finnpulp and Bahama Star. Among those on the first half-filled lifeboat to reach the Finnpulp was the Yarmouth Castle’s 35-year-old Captain Byron Voutsinas; he was told to go back to his ship.

It was later detailed in a 27-page report that the fire started with mattresses set against a circuit board in a storage room where cans of paint sat. Excessive coats of paint throughout the ship contributed to the scope of the disaster, and so did the wooden superstructure that enabled rapid spread of flames. Fire hose pressure was insufficient.

The captain and several crew members were later cited for their actions – or non-actions. Of the 90 (some reports say 91) who perished, only two were crew members - a doctor and a female steward.

The report’s findings led to the creation of the Safety of Life at Sea Law (SOLAS) in 1966 that dictated a ship carrying more than 50 overnight passengers be constructed of a steel superstructure, that regular fire drills be conducted, and ample life saving equipment be available in cabins and inflatable life rafts provided on deck. (I sailed aboard the ship as a child and can vouch there was at least one fire drill on our cruise - before SOLAS was enacted.)

The 356-foot, 5002-ton ship was launched as the SS Evangeline in 1927, and operated by the Eastern Steamship Company in a route that included Boston, Yarmouth and Nova Scotia. During World War II, it was pressed into service as a transport ship in the Pacific theater. The Evangeline was sold to Chadade Steamship Company and renamed the Yarmouth Castle in 1964. By then, its home port was Miami as it cruised to Nassau, Jamaica and Haiti. 

The ship's history was peppered with a number of events before it burned and sank.  It was the first cruise ship to enter the Port of Miami after World War II. Later, on another trip, about 80 passengers came down with food poisoning. It again made headlines when it rescued and towed a ship to Government Cut, south of Miami. Another time, a Cuban stowaway was found when it was docked in Jamaica.

Two other burning ship disasters grabbed headlines in prior years. The Miami Herald mistakenly reported the Yarmouth as the the worst "sea disaster in the Western Hemisphere in the 32 years since the Morro Castle, also a cruise ship, burned off Asbury Park, NJ in 1934 ... when 134 lives were lost." In fact, the worst disaster before the Yarmouth was the burning of the Naronic in Toronto Harbor in 1949 when 139 people perished.

Copyright © 2012, 2020 All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

*Use covered by the U.S. fair use laws because:

It is an image of a notable ship that was lost in 1965.

It is of much lower resolution than the original (copies made from it will be of very inferior quality)

The image is only being used for informational purposes.

Its inclusion in the article adds significantly to the article because it shows the subject of this article

Sources:

Miami News, Nov. 14, 1965

http://yarmouthshipping.com/id88.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarmouth_Castle_disaster

Tags: cruise ship disasters, SS Evangeline, SS Yarmouth Castle, Port of Miami history, maritime law, Florida sea disasters, film industry researcher, Florida history

Franklin D Roosevelt conducts presidential duties from Port Everglades and ...

 

March 24, 1936 at Port Everglades

By Jane Feehan


Presidents’ vacations have garnered notice throughout U.S. history; Franklin D. Roosevelt’s annual spring fishing trip was no exception.

Roosevelt came to Fort Lauderdale by train March 23, 1936 where he boarded the USS Monaghan at Port Everglades. The party rendezvoused at sea with the president's yacht, the Potomac, a converted Coast Guard cutter. FDR boarded the vessel for an inaugural ride. During the expedition, Roosevelt hooked a large sailfish, which escaped, and then landed a bonita. The excursion ended by early afternoon.

Roosevelt also conducted business that day while docked at Fort Lauderdale.

Major General Johnson Hagood met with the president en route to Fort Lauderdale after making some controversial remarks before a congressional committee about federal work relief expenditures. The day after the meeting, the decorated general was ordered by Roosevelt, still in Port Everglades, to take three months leave of absence.

Hagood’s leave lasted less than two months when he received a new command. He accepted the command for one day and then retired. His memories of Fort Lauderdale, no doubt, were not as fond as those held by Roosevelt.
________
Sources:
Palm Beach Daily News, March 24, 1936

Weidling, Philip J., Burghard, August. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press (1966).

Tags: Fort Lauderdale history, President Franklin D Roosevelt, Florida fishing history, Major General Johnson Hagood, film research

Orange Bowl plan: to extend Miami tourist season

Coca Cola Float Orange Bowl Parade 1939
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

Miami’s tourist season used to span six weeks, beginning in February and running concurrent with horse racing at Hialeah Park. Times were tough for the young city after the 1926 hurricane and during the Great Depression so the city’s movers and shakers got together at the Biltmore Hotel in 1933 to brainstorm a way to extend the winter season. The winning idea was a football game on New Year’s Day.

The first Palm Festival game was held in 1933 and was a match up between the University of Miami and Manhattan College. Manhattan was guaranteed $3,200—the Hurricanes nothing—but the Florida team routed the northern college with a 7-0 victory. The Palm Festival was held that year and the following in Moore Park at NW 36th Street and 7th Avenue. Both games were a sellout of 8,000 seats.

A charter was issued to 27 Miamians forming the new Orange Bowl Committee, which included Miami Herald editor and namesake of the John Pennekamp Coral Reef Park. Oranges were not a big crop in South Florida then but the name resonated with the committee headed by Director Ernest Seiler. The inaugural Orange Bowl Festival game was held Jan. 1, 1935 between Bucknell University and Miami; Bucknell prevailed 26-0. Ground was broken for a stadium in 1936 at 1501 NW 3rd Street; the sports facility was named Burdine Stadium until 1959. (Orange Bowl Stadium closed in 2008.)

Seiler was able to keep the new stadium filled; he was the consummate public relations practitioner. He developed elaborate 12-minute shows for halftime that were heralded as a popular highlight of the games. His PR skills paid off for the 1939 game when he traveled to Oklahoma to meet with the Sooners and enticed them south with pictures of beaches and palm trees for a bowl game. Seiler asked the team coach to call Tennessee to suggest they play their big game in Miami and it was a go; the bowl game of 1939 propelled the Orange Bowl into the nation’s lineup of major bowl games.

Seiler kept adding to the Orange Bowl festivities with a parade along the Miracle Mile in Coral Gables, a boating regatta, beauty pageant and more. By the 1940s, it was the place to be New Year’s Day. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower was the honored guest in 1947; President-Elect John Kennedy attended in 1961.

Today the Orange Bowl is a tradition in Miami and across the nation – and the winter tourist season runs five or six months instead of six weeks. The game is now played at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens at 199th Street or 347 Don Shula Drive.

www.orangebowl.org

Sources:
Miami News, Jan. 2, 1963
Miami News, Dec. 27, 1946
www.orangebowl.com


Tags: Miami history, Orange Bowl history, Orange Bowl sponsor, Palm Festival, first Orange Bowl game, Florida film researcher, film researcher

Orange Bowl, 1960 Miami,
Florida State Archives, Florida Memories
Dept. of Commerce

Jupiter, the Florida town: How it got its name

By Jane Feehan

Jupiter, Florida was incorporated as a town in 1925. But long before that, the inlet and its surrounds were known by that name.

 
In the 18^th century, an Englishman interpreting a map drawn up by the Spanish during their first rule over Florida (1513-1763) read the name of a local Indian tribe who lived at the mouth of the Loxahatchee River. The Spanish called them Jove but they  were a bit off.

The name of nearby Hobe Sound is thought to be derived from how those Loxahatchee River Indian inhabitants referred to 

themselves.  The Spanish mistakenly referred to them as Jove.

Throw in some Latin, language of the educated those days, and the meaning of Jove is Jupiter, the god of thunder and sky and king of all gods in Roman mythology. 

Nearby Juno (about seven miles south) sprang up in the late 1800s (incorporated in 1953); its founders adopted the mythological name of Jupiter’s consort, Juno, for their town.

Who knew. A bit of Roman culture found its way into Florida history.

Sources: Town of Jupiter, Town of Juno Beach, Wikipedia

http://www.jupiter.fl.us

http://www.juno-beach.fl.us

http://www.wikipedia.org

Tags: How Jupiter got its name, how Jupiter got its name, Jupiter history,Juno Beach history

Hippodrome opens in Miami 1917 - a new venue for film and entertainment

Hippodrome 1917
Florida State Archives/Hoit

By Jane Feehan

Miami’s second Hippodrome, a large movie house that replaced the original, smaller venue across the street, opened in January, 1917. Located downtown at the 200 block of Flagler Street, the theater was acclaimed for its spaciousness, seating 1,100.

When completed, the new building cost New York-based owners Hickson, Whitener and Scacht [sic] $200,000. Its interior, with balcony, was painted white and dark green and featured a lattice work ceiling for an open, airy atmosphere. The Hippodrome took four months to complete and was designed with “Italian lines of architecture” for both the exterior and interior. Illumination, according to the Miami Metropolis, was provided by “inverted bowls” containing lights that could be regulated from a bright flood of light to a dim glow.

“Pictures will be thrown upon a Silveroid screen – the last word in the line of screens …” the paper reported.  There were to be two hour shows throughout the day between 1 and 9 p.m. Music was to be furnished by an eight-piece orchestra and a five thousand dollar pipe organ.

The Hippodrome was leased by Ohioans Joseph F. Foster and his son, Raymond W. Foster who planned to show the best films available, including Where are My Children, Purity, and the controversial Birth of a Nation. For opening day they featured 

six-reel The Common Law with Clara Kimball Young.

In 1928, the Hippodrome proudly announced the showing of The Lights of New York, the first all-talking movie (The Jazz Singer was the first partly-talking film). Dialogue was through the latest film industry gadget – the Vitaphone - and starred Helene Costello.

No doubt the Hippodrome was one of the most popular Miami theaters of the day, featuring not only movies but also plays, comedy acts, and musical events. It’s hard to imagine 1,100 people seated in a building without air-conditioning in August. The Hippodrome closed in 1930 and reopened as the Rex Theater in 1931. 

Copyright © 2011. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.

Sources:

Cinema Treasures.org

Miami Metropolis, Jan. 05, 1917

Miami Metropolis, Jan. 6, 1917

Miami News, Aug. 19, 1928

Florida State Archives, Florida Memory

Tags: Florida history, Miami history, movie houses in the early 1900s, film industry research, film researcher

Fort Lauderdale's lion-breeding pit (think Gateway)

Clyde Beatty at his Fort Lauderdale Jungle Zoo, circa 1945
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan

The site of present-day Gateway Shopping Center, where Sunrise Blvd. and U.S. 1 merge, was once a rock pit and breeding spot for lions. The McKillop-Hutton company launched operations here in 1936 to raise big cats and other animals for circuses and the zoo trade.

Celebrated animal trainer, circus owner, and one time big-game hunter Clyde Beatty (1903-1965), purchased the pit and its lions from McKillop-Hutton in 1939. Clyde Beatty’s Jungle Zoo opened on the site; it proved to be a popular South Florida attraction. 

Beatty, who started out in the circus business cleaning cages and holding pens, often hosted local school kids eager to see big cats and other animals. A children's zoo, an addition to the original footprint, featured baby animals born and raised at his zoo.

The roaring of lions, and monkeys escaping into homes of the adjacent Victoria Park neighborhood eventually forced reluctant city officials to use zoning ordinances to close operations in 1945.

In a Fort Lauderdale City Commission meeting held in February 1945, it was determined the zoo, "an eye sore" violated sanitary requirements. Another ordinance was written prohibiting the raising or housing of wild animals within city limits. 

Sixty Victoria Park residents on hand for the meeting, loudly cheered approval of the ordinanaces that were to close that chapter of Fort Lauderdale history. Beatty, who wrote The Big Cage, which was also a film released in 1933, was reportedly not at the meeting to defend himself and his $125,000 investment.

Today's Gateway Shopping Center was developed over the old rock pit in 1950. (See index for Gateway)


Copyright ©2010, 2020 Jane Feehan. All rights reserved.

Clyde Beatty at his Fort Lauderdale Jungle Zoo, circa 1945
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Sources:
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Nov. 24, 1941
Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Feb. 26, 1945
Weidling and Burghard. Checkered Sunshine. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1966
Internet Movie Database - www.imdb.org
Circus History – www.circushistory.org




Tags: Lions, Clyde Beatty, Fort Lauderdale in the 1940s, Gateway Shopping Center, Fort Lauderdale history