We are approaching another significant anniversary in South Florida history. April 25th will mark 75 years since the completion of the Tamiami Trail, the first vehicular road connecting Miami and Florida's west coast.

In anticipation of the anniversary, the St. Petersburg Times has published a special report , written by Jeff Klinkenberg, commemorating the building of the road, as well as providing a travelogue of the highway today.

Miami's Capt. James J. Jaudon, who wanted to develop his holdings in the Everglades, thought up the idea of a road linking Florida's coasts in 1916. In Tampa, E.P. Dickey of the Board of Trade seconded the motion and suggested a name, the Tamyami Trail.

"Good heavens," bellowed the editor of the Estero American Eagle. "The name sounds like a bunch of tincans tied to a dog's tail and clattering over cobblestones." But in Miami, William Stewart Hill, a Herald writer, sprinted to his typewriter. Whenever interest waned, he batted out another story.

Barron G. Collier, a Southwest Florida millionaire who amassed a fortune in the New York advertising business, bankrolled Trail construction when the state ran out of money. In return, a county was named for him. Collier wanted more than immortality. From his mansion he looked with envy at all that Henry Flagler money over in Miami and plotted a way to get it flowing in his direction. The Tamiami Trail was the pipeline.

Considered among the world's great engineering feats, the Tamiami Trail took a dozen years of sweaty, buggy, boggy work to complete. It took dreamers and schemers and $8-million. It took a lot of dynamite to blast away stubborn rock. It took oxen, especially an ox named Old Blue, to haul stuff through the Everglades. Paul Bunyan would have been there, but he was scared of mosquitoes.

Of the thousands of workers who braved the hostile environment to build the Tamiami Trail, just one is alive today.