The wide rail bed behind the historic Callahan Depot
The Mills Creek Trestle and rail bed beyond
Mills Creek Trestle and old wooden pilings underneath
The abandoned CSX rail bed that runs from downtown Callahan northeast to Petree Road would make a perfect nature and bike trail. The 1.4 mile long path was once part of the historic Florida Railroad grade that was the Sunshine State's first cross peninsular track that connected Fernandina on the Atlantic to Cedar Key on the Gulf, a distance of 155 miles. Prolific railroad contractor Daniel Callahan and his crew built this now unused section in 1856. The first 1600 feet of bed between the CSX junction to US 1 is extra wide because it once held two parallel railroads, the above mentioned Florida Railroad and their rival, the Savannah, Florida and Western Railroad, built by railroad baron Henry Plant in 1881. It is void of trees and is mowed during the summer months. Old cross ties are starting to peak through the worn spots that become mud holes when it rains. This wide section (100-120 feet in width) is vacant except for the parcel containing the 1881 SFW depot owned and maintain by the West Nassau Historical Society. The non profit group hosts the Railroad Days Festival in late March to bring awareness of the important role railroads played in the development of Nassau County. Beyond US 1, the bed narrows into the typical single track grade (about 50 feet wide) as it parallels Martin Luther King Ave. The narrow width makes it unsuitable for any type of permanent structures but is ideal for a bike and nature trail. It is currently unmowed and there are small deciduous trees growing upon the bed that makes it noticeable in Aeriel view. The grade is solid, level, measures about 1 to 2 feet above the terrain and is basically intact except for a couple of cuts made for driveways and roads. However, once the bed passes Annie Laura Street (3600 feet from the CSX junction), it starts to rise as it cuts through the low wooded area around Mills Creek. MLK Avenue ends and the rail bed makes its solo trek though the low laying woods, rising from 2 feet to about 8 feet in height. It is now void of trees and the grass is kept low by a thin layer of ballast and fallen leaves. At 4600 feet from the CSX junction, the bed gives way to a 250 feet long concrete trestle that spans Mills Creek where it forms at the confluence of Alligator and Williams Creek. The bridge was built in the early 1980s over the remains of a wooden trestle whose wood pilings were sawed off at ground level under the new span. The new sturdier span wasn't used for very long as CSX abandoned the line to Gross and Savannah in 1985. Mills Creek flows from this point under the trestle eastward into Four Creeks State Preserve nearly 2 miles away. The creek is still navigate and would make for a nice kayak/canoe trip to Four Creeks. The rail bed continues Northeast from the Mills Creek Trestle for about 1500 feet until it reaches Petree Road where the line forks into two directions. To the right (east) continues the 1856 Florida Railroad bed toward Yulee. Abandoned in the mid 1950s, most of this bed has been lost to time, either leveled, sold to private owners or paved over as part of the SR 200/ A1A widening project. To the left branches the Gross Line rail bed which makes a bee line through privately own timber lands and a wildlife management area to Gross, a long vanished whistle stop near I 95 and US 17 just south of the St. Marys River. This line built by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in 1923 was used to bypass the busy Jacksonville terminal. It was part of the 1985 rail abandonment by CSX. Today the bed and trestle would make a nice nature and bike trail connecting the historic Callahan Depot with a kayak and canoe portage via a natural wooded forest.
