Southwest 8th Street and the Tamiami Trail

Southwest 8th Street has served as a crucial transportation corridor for South Florida since before the founding of Miami in 1896. It began as an unpaved path that connected small-to-medium-sized citrus groves to the city's original downtown core. The Orange Glade Road, as it was then called, connected local growers of grapefruit, mangoes, oranges, pineapples, lemons, and avocados to rail and shipping lines. In 1903, private citizens, including grove owners and workers, provided most of the funding and labor to pave the road. In the following decades, Southwest 8th Street continued to be a key outlet for Miami’s expansion as the city’s borders spread westward and residential and commercial developments replaced citrus groves. The emergence of the automobile inspired public desire for a paved highway connecting Miami to Florida's west coast. In 1915, the monumental engineering challenge of connecting Tampa to Miami by road began. Thirteen years later, the completed Tamiami Trail fueled Miami’s emergence as a tourist and trade destination with Southwest 8th Street as its eastern terminus. The 1968 opening of the section of I-75 known as “Alligator Alley” lessened the Tamiami Trail’s use, but not its importance.