The Courtney Campbell Causeway linking Tampa and Clearwater recently reached 75 years of age, and local history buffs celebrated the birthday, and put up a new historical marker.
Those of you who read the stories will know that Ben T. Davis built the thing, 
but his name has since been relegated to an undesirable excuse of a beach alongside the road.
A direct descendant of Confederate President Jefferson Davis (and unrelated to D.P. Davis of Davis Islands), Ben T. moved to Tampa in 1926. At that time, the Gandy Bridge was the only span over Old Tampa Bay. The other route was around the bay through Oldsmar.
He began the causeway project in 1927, when only three families lived at Rocky Point, but the collapse of Florida’s real estate market and the onset of the Great Depression led to plenty of delays. The road finally opened on June 28, 1934.
Tolls originally cost $.25 plus a nickel for each additional passenger (round trip was $.50 for a carload), and through 1943 was basically two lanes on a strip of sand. In 1944, the Feds bought the road (they needed it for the war) for just over a million bucks, and ended the tolls.
Before Courtney Warren Campbell was elected as a Florida U.S. Representative to the 83rd Congress (1953), he served as a member of the Florida State Road Board from 1942 to 1947. During that time, he led efforts to repair and spruce up the Causeway, and in 1948, the road across Tampa Bay was renamed the Courtney Campbell.
In 2005, the state named the Courtney Campbell Causeway an official Florida Scenic Highway. The views from the causeway are impressive, including looks at the Tampa Bay Estuary and Cypress Point park. Stops along the way include a public boat ramp, the Great Florida Birding Trail, two beach areas, and paved biking trails.
Since then, work on the Tampa Airport Interchanges project has gotten rid of some local landmarks you won’t see in the history books.
Find out more at CourtneyCampbell.org and Ben T. Davis Beach
