Mickey Mouse and Orlando...............they did not go through the Everglades...............supposedly the only one of its kind in the world.............the run off South of Lake Okchobee............a lake big enough u cannot see the other side.........

The Native Americans of South Florida called the Everglades..............an impenetrable place...........

The Atlantic Coast Line made Tampa its major destination on the West Coast with maintenance shops, yards and shipping facilities located there. The ACL Florida main line ran from Jacksonville to Tampa via Orlando, Lakeland and Plant City.

Manatee County railroads in the 1930's.

The Seaboard Air Line, based in Richmond, VA, was a competitor of the ACL and came to Tampa in 1902, running tracks through Ocala and Plant City before turning west toward Tampa. Seaboard began building branch lines just after the turn of the century to St. Petersburg, Bradenton, Sarasota and Venice. Both railroads also absorbed several short lines until their tracks intertwined throughout this region and laid the ground work for their eventual merger in 1967, forming the Seaboard Coast Line.