The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1914-05-01
PAVED HIGHWAYS
REUNION TRAVELS
Jacksonville Has Many High
Class Roads to Points
of Interest
Trips to Be Taken over Them In Al.
tomobiIes During the Reunion of
Confederates May 6, 7, 8.

Jacksonville, Fla, April.-It is safe
to say that hundreds, and possibly
thousands, of visitors to Jacksonville
during the week of the great Reunion
Of Confederate Veterans and Sons OF
Veterans, will make the trip from
their homes in automobiles. Numer-
Gus inquiries have been received from
all parts of the country concerning
road conditions, and especially in re-
gard to the practicability of reaching
other points in Florida by automobile
trips from Jacksonville.
For the information of auto owners,
DESTROYS of bringing their cars to
Jacksonville at the time of the Re
union, attention is called to the fact
that the city license books show that
there are over 1000 licensed automo-
biles in the city of Jacksonville alone,
and during the past winter season
more than $500 motor-driven vehicles
have passed through Jacksonville en-
route to various places on the Florida
peninsula. Unless there were fairly
good roads, leading from Jacksonville
to other sections of the State, there
would not have been one-tenth as
many cars in Florida this season, and
the home people of Jacksonville would
not have invested so heavily in motor
vehicles.
Duval county, of which Jacksonville
is the county seat, was among the first
of the Florida counties to issue road
improvement bonds and to begin the
paving of it's highways with vitrified
paving brick and concrete. With a
population of only $4,000 in 1909, this
county issued road improvement bonds
that year to the amount of $1,000,000,
and it was provided that not more
than $250,O00 was to. be expended in
road construction each year for four
years. The bonds were sold at a
handsome premium and the money
has all been expended on the roads of
the county, with a result that this
county now has some of the very best
in the South, and these roads are a
Joy to the joyrider and to all persons
who use them.
But this is not all; for the Board of
County Commissioners Is at the pres
ent time working up interest in a
proposition to issue from 100000 to
S5,0O0,00O additional road improve
ment bonds and construct a system OF
paved roads and highways throughout
the county of Duval that will be a
model for all sections of the country
: Jacksonville is only seventeen miles
in direct line from the Atlantic
Ocean, where there is one Of the finest
beaches in the world, affording a speed
way four hundred feet in width ano
, twenty miles in length. Here is the
ideal automobile course and 1t is Wis
tied by thousands Of cars every year
From the city to the seashOre the
county has constructed magnificen
: boulevard, paved with vitritted brlcF
and with concrete for the entire dis
Z lance. Hundreds of cars traverse thl'
: Atlantic Boulevard, as it is known
daily, and during the Reunion many
thousands of visitors will make the
trip by auto to the beach Once OF
the seashore they will find much tt
interest them. Surf bathing will bt
at its best during the Reunion Weel
l.. and many visitors from interior points
1 who have never before had the oppor
tunity to plunge into the big breaker
f of Old Ocean, will find the experience
novel and delightful one.
From Jacksonville to St Augustin
the distance by auto is SO miles AM
the trip is easily made in two hours
l. In fact, the record for the trip is on
S hour and nine minutes, but that is
: most too fast for a trip to the oldes
= city in the United States.
V The road from South Jacksonville
J. on the opposite side of the majesti
st. Johns river from the Reunion cit.
is paved with shell for nine miles an
the going is good. Then comes 81
i miles Of brick paving over which tn
= cars fairly skim along. The next for
e miles, to the Duval county line, hay
I, not vet been paved, but a Temporal