How did the Tamiami Trail pop out of the Everglades? Get the backstory

The Tamiami Trail got its name in 1915 from E.P. Dickey, an officer of the Tampa Board of Trade, who said the combination of “Tampa” and “Miami” was logical “for a highway which would connect the two cities.”

The trail doesn’t actually connect the two cities, although the road does continue north through Naples, Fort Myers and Sarasota to Tampa.

“Tamiami” — pronounced Tam-ee-ami — also was adopted by the neighborhood around the trail in West Miami-Dade, and had been a longtime namesake for a college campus, an airport and a high school football stadium.

In 1915, Captain Jaudon, a Miami real estate developer, tried to persuade state officials to build a cross-state highway to Miami. The road would cut across the heart of the Everglades, an area on which Jaudon considered himself an expert.

Jaudon’s idea became popular with journalists statewide, and public opinion quickly grew in favor of the proposed highway. After a Seminole-led canoe trip through the Everglades convinced the Department of Transportation that construction in the Everglades would be possible, the highway received its go-ahead.

Construction of the trail, also known as Southwest Eighth Street in Miami-Dade and U.S. 41, was a monumental task.

More than three million pounds of dynamite were used in the process of clearing the dense Everglades foliage. Heavy machinery sank out of sight in the swampy wetland. Workers had to deal with the dangers of unstable explosives, quicksand and poisonous snakes as they slowly made progress. Several men were killed in on-the-job accidents.

After 13 years of construction, the trail officially opened in April 1928, with a great motorcade driving the 284 miles from Tampa to Miami. The total cost of the project was $7 million.

This story was originally published December 21, 2025 at 5:00 AM.