Mayor Chris Hoffman of Jacksonville Beach loves talking about the future AND the history of the Beaches. Even as Mayor, she maintains her current position as Director of the Beaches Museum. She joined RCL today and posed the following trivia questions. See how well you do….the answers follow!
Q1. What was a major factor in sparking the surfing craze at our local beaches?
Q2. If you lived in Jacksonville in 1885, what was the best way to get to the beach?
Q3. A great spot for fishing and really important to our boating and shipping industry, what year were the Jetties built?
A1. In 1964 the producers of the movie “The Endless Summer” came to Jacksonville Beach for a showing of the movie at Beach Theatre. They hosted a surfing exhibition and competition at the Jacksonville Beach Pier and attracted thousands of young people including local surf legend Bruce Clelland. Bruce would become Jacksonville Beach’s first world class professional surfer, but many more would follow in his footsteps.
A2. In 1885 the Jacksonville & Atlantic Railroad opened with service from south Jacksonville to Pablo Beach. The 16 mile train trip took about 45 minutes, a big improvement on the previous half day trip by steamboat and on foot.
To encourage people to visit the beach for day trips the railroad made tickets from south Jacksonville to the beach half price but return tickets were full price!
A3 The jetties were built from 1880 – 1885 with continued improvements in 1900. The jetties were a huge improvement for local fishermen as well as the shipping industry.
The jetties are long stone structures that extended from the mouth of the St. Johns into the Atlantic Ocean. Two jetties were constructed for the St. Johns River project: the north jetty—3 miles long—on the northern bank at Fort George and the south jetty—2.5 miles long—on the southern bank at Mayport. The jetties were engineered to channel the turbulent currents to reduce the sand bar, deepen the waters at the mouth, and allow ships to pass over what was left of the sand bar.
The Beaches Museum is OPEN and you can learn more at beachesmuseum.org.