Port Charlotte
Port Charlotte
Port Charlotte is just to the north of Punta Gorda and much of the development and promotion of this area was done by the General Development Company in the 60's. The canals and flood control system were all done by them. General development is no more however the unsold property has gone to a company in Ft. Lauderdale to hold as inventory. Highway 41 bisects the area and can be seen as the diagonal street in the picture from SE to NW. Highway 41 continues to Venice and Sarasota eventually ending up in Tampa. It also bisects Punta Gorda, Ft. Myers and all Cities south. That is why they call it the "Tamiami Trail".
The Tamiami Trail
The Trail began construction in 1915 as a way to get traffic across the Everglades from Miami to Tampa. It totals 275 miles and runs west from Miami, across the everglades and up the mainland east of the Ten Thousand Islands to Naples and thence up the coast from there. Before that one had to drive north of Lake Okeechobee and come back south to get anywhere south of Tampa by automobile. The road was built by using a dredging barge in the Everglades and dredging two canals on each side of the barge and depositing the spoil onto the future road bed. It still exists and is an important thoroughfare however most people now use Interstate 75 which runs across the Everglades form Ft. Lauderdale to Naples thence north to the east of the Trail. Most of Tamiami Trail is now an urban arterial and not designed to get somewhere in a hurry.
Initially, Pt. Charlotte hadlittle infrastructure but over the years Charlotte County has been providing public water (mostly complete) and public sewer. Many homes in the outlying parts are still well and septic. Most of Pt. Charlotte lacks deed restrictions so there can be vast differences between homes and homeowners interest in care and maintenance. There are some very nice areas such as Grassy Point and other PUD's that were deed restrictions were instituted. The area to the NE commonly referred to as Section 15 is also quite nice and has public water, sewer and large homes; often on lakes and canals.
