The Train Comes to Punta Gorda

The first train to operate in Florida was the Lake Wimico and St. Joseph line that connected the boomtown of St. Joseph to the Apalachicola River in 1836. Then in 1861, the railroad came to the west coast of Florida.   Track was extended from Fernandina in northeast Florida to Cedar Key, north of Tampa.  Essentially destroyed during the civil war the road was rebuilt in 1866 and by 1883 connected Jacksonville to Tampa.

  
As the railroad made its way further south, it was Isaac Trabue, the founder of Punta Gorda, who convinced the Boston owners of the Florida Southern Railway, to make his town then Trabue its southern terminus, rather than Charlotte Harbor on the north side of the Peace River.  

By July 24, 1886 track was extended the final six miles to Trabue, (Punta Gorda’s original name) which then became the southernmost point on the country’s rail system. The first passenger train arrived Aug. 1.  The line continued west through the city and terminated at a dock off the Peace River known as the Long Dock, which was located near where the Isles Yacht Club  is today. The dock was removed by Henry Plant in the 1890s after his company acquired the Florida Southern to insure that Tampa would be the major port on the gulf coast.  

The line, originally built as narrow gauge, was widened to standard gauge in 1892, and the Florida Southern was fully integrated with the Plant System in 1896.