Photos | Palatka Railroad Preservation Society

The City of Palatka issued a charter to William P. Craig to operate the Palatka and Heights Street Railway Company on March 30, 1888. The mule-drawn streetcar line, under the city's ordinance, could not charge more than five cents a mile. The P&H Street Railway Company went out of business in 1906 when it could not afford to electrify.

This trestle bridge, which was built in 1895, initially carried passenger cars pushed by a steam engine from St. Augustine across the Matanzas River to the Anastasia Island Beaches on the Atlantic Ocean. This photo shows a double-track closed electric trolley car headed toward the beach around 1915. Trolley service ended in 1930 when buses began providing passenger car service across the new Bridge of Lions.

The Florida East Coast Railway built this double-track bridge across the St. Johns River in Jacksonville. The bridge included a trunnion bascule, or Strauss-type, lift span. The single leaf of this span measured 216 feet in length, making it one of the largest of its kind at the time. The bridge, which parallels the Acosta Bridge, continues in services today.