Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway

At its greatest extent, the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway ran from Mulberry to the southern tip of Gasparilla Island, a distance of nearly 100 miles. From Mulberry, the line proceeded south in a mostly straight trajectory through Bradley Junction, Fort Green Springs, and Ona to Arcadia.

What remains of the line today terminates in Arcadia but historically, it continued from Arcadia southwest, paralleling the Peace River and the adjacent Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (former Florida Southern Railway) through Nocatee and Fort Ogden. Near Fort Ogden, the line crossed the river and continued southwest into southeastern Sarasota County and Port Charlotte, where it ran alongside of what is today Raintree Boulevard, Veterans Boulevard, and State Road 776 (which has since been widened into the former right of way). It crossed the Myakka River in El Jobean and continued running south just northwest of what is today Gasparilla Road toward Placida and Gasparilla Island.

In Placida, the line crossed a causeway consisting of three major trestles onto Gasparilla Island, where it ran the length of the island and terminating at the Boca Grande port at the south end of the island near Port Boca Grande Lighthouse.

Large amounts of phosphate, a valuable commodity used in agriculture, were discovered along the Peace River in the late 1800s. Transporting phosphate by ship down the Peace River was a slow and tedious process due to the river levels being low at some times. The Florida Southern Railway (which later became part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad) operated tracks to Punta Gorda along the south side of the river, and it was also used to some extent to transport phosphate to its dock in Punta Gorda for shipment.

Boca Grande Pass, a natural deepwater inlet at the south end of Gasparilla Island, was seen as the perfect place for a deepwater port to simplify the process of shipping phosphate. The Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway was first chartered in 1897 as the Alafia, Manatee, and Gulf Coast Railroad. Peter B. Bradley, who created the American Agricultural Chemicals Company, secured the charter for the line in 1905, and renamed it the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway.[1]

By 1907, the line was completed between Boca Grande and Arcadia, where repair shops were located, as well as a connection to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad's route from Lakeland to Fort Myers (the former Florida Southern Railway). The Boca Grande port included a 3,000 foot dock for loading large vessels directly from railroad cars. In addition to transporting freight, it also provided passenger service to Boca Grande, which was famous for its world-class tarpon fishing. Three passenger depots existed on Gasparilla Island, with one at the north end of the island, one in downtown Boca Grande (which still stands), and one at the port at the south end of the island where boat connections could be made to nearby Useppa Island.[1]

By 1910, the line was extended north beyond Arcadia into the Bone Valley where a connection to the Seaboard Air Line Railroad's new spur from Plant City to Agricola was established. This connection would become known as Bradley Junction (named after founder Peter B. Bradley).[2] In addition to penetrating more phosphate-rich regions of the state, the extension provided a shortcut for trains traveling between Boca Grande and Tampa. A further extension north from Bradley Junction to phosphate mines in Mulberry was later built around 1912, which provided additional connections to both the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (via their Bone Valley Branch) and Seaboard Air Line Railroad (via their Valrico Subdivision). This final extension would also serve the now-defunct phosphate town called Pierce.[3]

In 1925, the line was leased by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, who then fully purchased the line from the American Agricultural Chemicals Company a year later.[4] In addition to gaining access to the Boca Grande port, Seaboard used the line to build their much celebrated route to Fort Myers and Naples (the Seaboard-All Florida Railway). That route, which opened in early 1927 but only lasted until 1952, branched off of the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway near Fort Ogden.[5]

Empty phosphate train on the still-active segment of the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway near Agrock Yard in 2020

Trackage between Mulberry and Arcadia is all that remains of the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway today. It makes up CSX's Achan Subdivision from Mulberry to Bradley Junction, and the Brewster Subdivision from Bradley Junction to Arcadia (the Brewster Subdivision also includes the former Seaboard route from Bradley Junction to Edison).[8][9][10] Seminole Gulf Railway operates the southernmost two miles of the line (which connects to their main line, the remaining Atlantic Coast Line route south to Punta Gorda, Fort Myers, and Bonita Springs). CSX continues to use the line for transporting phosphate mined in the northern Bone Valley region and interchange traffic for Seminole Gulf. The Brewster Subdivision is today CSX's second busiest route for phosphate traffic in the region (after the Valrico Subdivision).

In 1900, the Railway produced an advertising brochure for its Boca Grande Hotel near the end of the line on Gasparilla Island that claimed that the area was once home to José Gaspar, a renegade Spanish pirate who was supposedly based on Gasparilla Island when Florida was still Spanish territory. The brochure claimed that Gaspar had ravaged shipping across the Gulf of Mexico to the Spanish Main for almost 40 years, had named most of the islands in the Charlotte Harbor area, and had left a huge and undiscovered treasure cache somewhere in the vicinity of the Boca Grande Hotel. Although the story was entirely fictional, the tale of Gaspar inspired the creation of a pirate-themed community event in nearby Tampa, Florida, and the Gasparilla Pirate Festival has become a tradition since 1904.[11]

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  Boca Grande Bike Trail on former right of way on Gasparilla Island
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  Abandoned drawbridge tower on the former bascule bridge over Gasparilla Sound
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  Swing bridge over Gasparilla Sound
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  Fishing Pier on southernmost Gasparilla Island trestle
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  Placida Bunk House was built by the railroad to house their employees and originally stood in Placida. It now resides at the Cape Haze Pioneer Trail's Mercer trailhead.
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  Historic marker for the defunct town of Pierce, Florida, a town the railroad once served near Mulberry.
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  Bridge over Peace River near Arcadia on the still-active segment of the railroad