TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — Imagine stepping back into 1922, when your journey began, near or far, at the Tampa Union Station.
Long before airlines connected the skies and automobiles dominated the roads, Tampa historian Rodney Kite-Powell says the railroad was the primary mode of transportation for those looking to travel great distances.
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“Before the first scheduled airline flight, which began here in Tampa, and long before automobiles became commonplace, the railroad was how people traveled great distances,” Powell said.
Kite-Powell says the railroad was important for the growth and development of Tampa.
“Tampa owes its modern existence to the railroad. Henry Plant brought the railroad here in the 1880s it was because of that and the steamship connections that he, he created and really owned, that the cigar industry moved here and that the phosphate and the port grew,” he added…