Span's Rededication Bridges Gap

This bridge is at the southwest corner of the Tampa Heights neighborhood. There are more stories about it if Google it, like: http://www.sptimes.com/2007/10/12/Citytimes/Bridge_links_us_to_mo.shtml

Span's Rededication Bridges Gap
By JOSE PATINO GIRONA, The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - Through the years, Hal Holtsinger heard people referring to the bridge as the North Boulevard Bridge.

But he remembered the summer day in 1959 when the bridge spanning the Hillsborough River was dedicated for his grandfather, Eugene Holtsinger, a developer who helped create Bayshore Boulevard's first subdivision, Suburb Beautiful.

Hal Holtsinger wrote to Mayor Pam Iorio asking whether the bridge's name had been changed. Coincidentally, his cousin Joan Holtsinger Turner wrote a similar letter.

No, the city said, the bridge is still named for Eugene Holtsinger.

A rededication was held recently in his honor, with new markers erected. Hal Holtsinger, 81, attended.

"I am happy that the proper markers are back up again," he said. "I am happy for him to have the recognition. I just think in his relatively short life he accomplished a lot in this city."

Eugene Holtsinger moved to Tampa in 1905 from Dandridge, Tenn. He teamed up with Alfred Swann, also of Tennessee, in a land-development business and built homes in Hyde Park, Ridgewood Park, Ybor City and West Tampa, as well as Suburb Beautiful.

Eugene Holtsinger was the developer of the area known today as Channelside. He also helped form the Tampa-Sulphur Springs Traction Co., which built the Garcia Avenue Bridge over the river for streetcars running between Ybor City and West Tampa.

Holtsinger, who had diabetes, was 48 when he died on Dec. 16, 1916.
The bridge bearing his name, which replaced the nearby Garcia Avenue Bridge, cost $800,000 and was dedicated July 22, 1959.

"While a lot of things change in our city, we always have to remember those historical figures who helped make Tampa what it is today," Iorio said at the October rededication.