Featured Photos – Tampa's Proposed Riverwalk Project

The Office of the City Clerk would like for citizens to be able to enjoy photographs currently being housed in Archives and Records.  As such, periodically a selection of interesting photographs will be featured on the City Clerk's web site.   (These photographs were made available to the City of Tampa Archives as a courtesy from the Tampa Bay History Center, Tampa Historical Society and Tampa-Hillsborough County Library Services.)  Our current theme is Tampa's proposed Riverwalk Project.

Lafayette Street Bridge 1922

The Lafayette Street Bridge was constructed in 1913, and is the third bridge to exist at that site.  The bridge, which is 323 feet long and cost $250,000 to build, also connected downtown with Hyde Park and other residential areas by way of streetcar up until the late 1940s.  The bridge, along with Lafayette Boulevard, were renamed after President John F. Kennedy in the 1960s.

Courtesy of Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library

Platt Street Bridge 1956

The Platt Street Bridge was constructed in 1924 to relieve congestion on the Lafayette Street Bridge (now Kennedy Boulevard).  The bridge, built at the same time and designed identically to the Cass Street Bridge, is 518 feet long and cost $400,000 to build.  Platt Street and the bridge were named after one of Hyde Park's primary developers, O. H. Platt.

Courtesy of the Tampa Bay History Center

Lafayette Street Bridge, 1898

This photograph, taken from one of the minarets of the Tampa Bay Hotel, shows the sprawling metropolis of Tampa over one hundred years ago.  Tampa's business district grew rapidly at the end of the 19th century, causing residents to move to the suburbs of Tampa Heights and Hyde Park.

Courtesy of Tampa Bay History Center

Hillsborough River, 1950s

The Platt Street and Brorein Street Bridges are raised during a 1950s Gasparilla invasion.

Courtesy of the Tampa Historical Society

Cass Street Bridge, circa 1950s

The Cass Street Bridge, 500 feet in length and built in 1926 at a cost of $400,000, was built to serve the southern end of West Tampa and is the second bridge to operate at that site.  The adjacent railroad bridge, constructed in 1915, provided access to Port Tampa.  Cass Street and the bridge were named after General Lewis cass, who served as Secretary of War under President Andrew Jackson from 1831-36.

Courtesy of Tampa Bay History Center

Fire of 1919

On December 30, 1919, a fire destroyed two city blocks of business and property along the Hillsborough River between Whiting, Tampa and Washington Streets.  Light and power wires burned, causing outages to the entire city, east of the Hillsborough River.  Damages from the fire, caused when high winds fanned the burning flames, were nearly $400,000.

Courtesy of Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library