John F. Kennedy Boulevard (Tampa, Florida)

John F. Kennedy Boulevard (better known as Kennedy Boulevard), is a major east-west corridor in Tampa, Florida. It carries the State Road 60 designation through its entire route.

Some places of interest that can be accessed from this route include WestShore Plaza, International Plaza and Bay Street, Tampa International Airport via the Veterans Expressway, the University of Tampa, Downtown Tampa, and the Port of Tampa.

The roadway was originally known as Lafayette Street and later Grand Central Ave. west of the downtown area in the City of Tampa during the 1800s and early/mid 1900s. At that time, it was mainly a two-lane thoroughfare. The road's eastern terminus was extended over a CSX rail line to what is today Channelside Drive. Its western terminus was just east of Howard Ave, where it connected to Memorial Highway (Memorial Hwy., then, was much longer than it is today and remained a dirt road into the early 50's).

Prior to the construction of the Interstate Highway system, which began in the early 60's in Tampa, what became known as Kennedy Blvd. was the main artery for heavy westbound traffic emptying from downtown Tampa and points eastward during the rush hour. When Interstate 4 opened in the mid-60's offering travelers express movement in both directions Kennedy Blvd. activity shrunk to less than 50 percent of the activity it had enjoyed and its many businesses that depended on the high traffic count closed or relocated. Today, with Tampa's exploding population and attendant commercial and residential development, Kennedy Blvd. is once again a very significant part of the City's travel network.

The road was renamed for President John F. Kennedy in 1964 by unanimous vote of Tampa City Council following his visit to Tampa on November 18, 1963, less than a year earlier. His motorcade made use of the roadway during that rare visit only four days before his assassination. It was chosen for such a renaming because Kennedy had used about five miles of Grand Central Avenue for his motorcade leading through the center of the business district. According to Kennedy Library records, President Kennedy's public exposure in Tampa was only second in length of time during his entire presidency to that of his visit earlier that year to Berlin, Germany.

Since then, the roadway has seen many changes, such as expansions to 4-6 lanes. Today, Kennedy Blvd. (sometimes referred to as simply "JFK") is a vital link to and from downtown Tampa and serves as an alternate to I-275 during rush hour. In 2003/2004, the CSX/Kennedy Blvd. overpass on the eastern edge of downtown Tampa was demolished due to construction on the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway.

WTVT - Fox 13's Studio is located on Kennedy Blvd near MacDill Ave. and Henderson Blvd. On that cool November day in 1963, a live TV camera perched atop the station's front portico captured President Kennedy's fast-moving motorcade as it whizzed eastward on then Grand Central Avenue on its way through downtown Tampa and on to Tampa's Ft. Homer Hesterly Armory. At that time, live remotes from multiple locations were a rarity for local stations so this part of the motorcade was all of the President's visit that many Tampa Bay area residents were able to witness via television.

About the same time as the renaming, a group of Tampa community activists headed by then local Democratic Party Chairman Robert Florio pooled resources to commission a life-sized statue of the slain President by a prominent Italian artist. The piece was shipped to the United States in mid-1964 and erected at a site at Plant Park on the University of Tampa campus at Hyde Park St. where the statue's face looks onto Kennedy Blvd.

External links

* [http://www.dot.state.fl.us/publicinformationoffice/historicdotphotos/bridges/lafayette.htm The historic Lafayette Street Bridge over the Hillsborough River.] The first wooden bascule bridge that was built at this crossing. It opened to traffic in the late 1800s and was replaced by a newer bascule bridge in the early 1900s. The bridge was later modified to today's appearance in the mid 1900s. The University of Tampa is seen in the background.