History
Government Center was developed in the late 1890s as the southern terminus of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) from 1896 through 1905 (see Overseas Highway). The FEC built a modest wooden-constructed downtown passenger terminal in 1912, near the future Miami-Dade County Courthouse at 200 Northwest First Avenue. The Dade County Courthouse was completed in 1925. Two years later in 1927 Seaboard Air Line Railroad intercity passenger rail started service at the location, and along with the FEC, continued service through January 23, 1963, when the rail unions went on strike. At the insistence of the City of Miami—which had long fought to get rid of the tracks in the downtown section just north of the county courthouse—the downtown passenger terminal was demolished by November 1963. Although a new station was planned at NE 36th Street, it was never built.
Development of the civic center was reinvigorated during the 1970s and early 1980s during a Downtown building boom. The boom spurred the development and construction the Stephen P. Clark Government Center, Metrorail, Metromover, and the Miami-Dade Cultural Plaza, which currently includes the Miami Art Museum, the Historical Museum of Southern Florida and the Miami Main Library.
Construction on the present-day Government Center station began in June 1982. The station was primarily designed by the Cambridge Seven Associates in collaboration with Edward D. Stone. The station was built by the Frank J. Rooney Construction Company. Metrorail service, between Overtown and Kendall, following the precise route of the FEC, commenced service May 1984.
An unused, partially completed ghost platform for a future East-West Metrorail line is adjacent to the west side of the mezzanine level below the current Metrorail station and is easily visible to passengers transferring from Metromover to Metrorail. This platform was part of the original design concept which interfaced with the atrium of the Miami-Dade County Administration Building, and the people mover station.
Read more about this topic: Government Center (MDT Station)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Certainly there is not the fight recorded in Concord history, at least, if in the history of America, that will bear a moment’s comparison with this, whether for the numbers engaged in it, or for the patriotism and heroism displayed.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of medicine is the history of the unusual.”
—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Prof. Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll)