JT&KW Railroad & Indian River Steamboat Wharf, 1885

JT&KW Railroad and Indian River Steamboat Wharf, 1885. Historic Titusville. Arriving in 1885, the first railroad to Titusville was a 35-mile stretch of track from Enterprise on a line of the Jacksonville, Tampa, and Key West Railroad, the JT&KW. The tracks ran down the middle of Broad Street’s right-of-way, and out onto a dock extending about 1500 feet into the lagoon to link up with the steamship wharf., The Indian River Steamboat Company was established by the railroad to furnish transport for its passengers to points south. Titusville immediately became the transportation hub of Florida’s East Coast. The railroad terminal at Broad Street greatly expanded the export of Indian River citrus, pineapples, and seafood as it opened the Indian River country to an influx of tourists and settlers., By 1893, Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway reached Titusville and soon pushed southward, ending Titusville’s short-lived monopoly. Steamboats continued to ply these waters into the 1900s, but they steadily lost passengers to the railroad., (sidebar) , "Our people should not forget what the Jacksonville, Tampa, and Key West System has done… Without the JT&KW system and its steamboat service, we could never have had the Flagler line.” , . Indian River Advocate, February 2, 1894