Interstate 75 - History

History

This limited access highway that was planned in the 1950s roughly follows the general route of many older at-grade highways, including U.S. Route 2, U.S. Route 27, U.S. Route 25, and U.S. Route 41, among others. Some of these older U.S. Routes (several of which are still in existence) previously had replaced the eastern route of the old Dixie Highway.

Interstate 75 was planned to end in Tampa, Florida, in the original plan for 41,000 miles of interstate highways. However, beginning in the 1960s, there was a huge growth in the population of southwestern Florida (Sarasota, Ft. Myers, Naples, Cape Coral, etc.), hence the need for new highways, especially a north-south expressway, as well as one connecting Florida's Gulf Coast to South Florida. At first, Florida state legislators proposed a toll in the new highway, but by 1968, it was decided that the Federal Government would pay 90% towards the extension of I-75 to southwestern and southeastern Florida. This included subsuming a privately-owned toll highway from Naples to the Fort Lauderdale area, the Alligator Alley, and furthermore to connect this expressway with Interstate 95 in North Miami -- though due to some local opposition, I-75 presently ends a few miles short of I-95.

On December 21, 1977, I-75 was completed from Tampa to Sault Ste. Marie with its final segment opening between northern Marietta, Georgia, and Cartersville, Georgia. Then the final stretch of Interstate 75 in South Florida was completed in 1986 in Miami-Dade County and Broward County, but the last stretch to receive the signs for I - 75 was the reconstructed (rebuilt and widened) Alligator Alley on November 25, 1992.