Friday, January 23, 2009

Birch State Park Railroad

Birch State Park RailroadBirch State Park is located on Fort Lauderdale Beach at the corner of A1A and Sunrise Blvd. It's an oasis of natural beauty in the midst of a sea of condominiums, bars, restaurants, and tourist attractions. When I was a kid, Birch Park had a narrow guage train that took visitors through swampy areas of the park that were difficult to get to on foot. The train crossed over a creek at one point with people paddling canoes underneath. Here's a postcard from the 1970's...
Birch State Park Railroad in 1970
My photo at the top shows all that's left of the bridge and the railroad. The train and the canoes were taken away years ago to keep greedy developers from seizing the park and building more condos. The details of this story aren't easy to find but if you dig into the details of Hugh Taylor Birch's agreement he made when he donated the land, you'll find the answers.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOVED this railroad as a kid. We used to jump off the back into the canal as it went over the water.used to get in LOADS of trouble for it! Wish it was still there for my kids to enjoy now.