“So much has been said and written about the loading of General Shafter’s expedition, with its fleet of thirty-six steamships, that the public will appreciate some detailed information about the immense facilities which are found ready for use at Port Tampa. This was through the foresight and business sagacity of the head of the Plant System, for he built largely for the great business that must pass through that port at no distant day. “The railroad yards of over thirty-six miles of track, at Port Tampa, Port Tampa City, and Tampa, belong to the Plant System, and have a capacity of over two thousand cars, leaving working room for all the business that this number of cars would bring to the place. The tracks are perfectly arranged, and experienced railroad men say that no railroad yard in the South will compare with this for conveniences in handling a big business. The business is in the hands of railroad men of experience, and no delays were traceable to them. Between Tampa and Port Tampa is a stretch of nine miles. To illustrate the perfect system employed in handling the business, it is only necessary to say that from six o’clock in the morning until 11:40 at night, twenty-six passenger trains passed over this nine miles every day. Besides this, the freight trains numbered more than this, comprising the various sections of regular trains and the large number of troop and supply-trains for the movement. There was no delay and not an accident. “Of the facilities at the docks, as much can be said. It is the only port in the country where vessels drawing twenty-four feet of water can come alongside and load in such numbers. There is room for twenty-four vessels of that draught, three hundred and twenty feet long, to lie end for end, and receive cargoes at the same time. These steamers are all loaded from the railroad tracks, just twenty feet removed from the edge of the pier, and nothing stands in the way of the quick work. Vessels of less length make it possible to increase the number, and at one time there were thirteen vessels loading end to end at one side of the pier. According to this calculation, thirty-two vessels could be accommodated. At these docks are to be found berths for phosphate vessels where their cargoes are loaded from electric elevators, which are the latest improved. Just across the slip is the government coal dock, and here are electric elevators for handling this business. A large amount of coal is now stored in these docks for the government.