(W. J.) Conners Highway

(no marker known)

No major connectors, loops, or spurs

Termini

West Palm Beach to Tampa

Toll Mainline (in Blue)

US 98 from West Palm Beach to Okeechobee (Still signed as Conners Highway in Canal Point, FL)

Free Mainline (in Red)

Florida 70 from Okeechobee to Lake Annie; US 27 from Lake Annie to Lake Wales (CR 17 / Florida 17 is the original route alongside US 27); Florida 60 from Lake Wales to Southwest Lakeland Airstrip (fka Circle X) west of Mulberry (Old Bartow - Lake Wales Rd original route between those cities) (Old Highway 60 along railroad west of Mulberry was original route); Coronet Rd from Airport to Polk - Hillsborough County Line; Old Mulberry Rd from Polk- Hillsborough County Line to Sparkman Rd; Sparkman Rd to Frank Moore Rd; Frank Moore Rd to Coronet Rd; Coronet Rd to Plant City, where it becomes Alsobrook St; North on Collins St; west on US 92; Florida 572 from western Plant City to Tampa; CR 572 into Tampa

Other Facts:

• Opened July 4, 1924
• Privately built and funded
• Advertised as full cross-state route but most mapmakers only noted tolled portion
• Served as alternate to muddy, swampy, incomplete Tamiami Trail / Dixie Highway (West)
• Route between Mulberry and Plant City includes many intersections designed to allow best flow for the Conners Highway in rural Hillsborough County
• Toll was $1.50 car and driver, $0.50 each passenger
• Booths at 20 Mile Bend, Canal Point, & Okeechobee
• Total 221.2 miles long
• Cost to build: $2,000,000
• Last segment paved: Okeechobee to Sebring (1925)
• Williams Ferry across Kissimmee River: $0.50
• Tolls ended June 10, 1930

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This page first posted to the web by Robert V. Droz on May 22, 2001.
This page last updated Tuesday, February 05, 2002.