This weekend Sarasota celebrates the opening of The Legacy Trail - The 12.4-mile-long, 100 ft-wide bike corridor in South Sarasota.This corridor serves as a link to the rich and wonderful past of the region. In 1911, the railroad corridor was extended through the Venice area at the request of the Palmer family. The railroad line preceded any of our modern highways, and served as the way Southwest Florida was discovered by many of its early inhabitants. Among the more well-known users of the railroad line were the U.S. Army during World War II, the Kentucky Military Institute and the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which wintered in Venice from 1962-1992. The railroad corridor links with the Venice Train Depot, which was built in 1927 and used for many years until the last passenger left the depot in 1971. Under a separate project, the Venice Train Depot was later purchased and rehabilitated by the county, which reopened it in 2003 to once again serve the area’s transportation needs as the south county passenger transfer facility for Sarasota County Area Transit (SCAT). The depot will serve as one of the trail heads of the recreational trail.
The corridor stretches from just over a mile south of State Road 72 (Clark Road) by Sawyer Loop Road in Sarasota to the southern terminus near Center Road in Venice.
2 comments:
This is fabulous! I look forward to the miles of green walking paths that Benderson will be building into the new large shopping area at University and North Cattlemen, as we could really use some off-road walking paths in this area.
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