In early 1900, Seaboard Air Line Railroad controlled 2,600 miles of track stretching from Virginia to Florida. In 1911 it constructed a 16.5-mile extension from Sarasota (Fruitville Junction) to Venice, and the bridge over South Creek is one of the remaining trestles built that year. Located at mile-marker 897.6, the trestle is approximately 125 feet long and is an open deck, timber trestle. The current new bridge is 175 feet long and supports The Legacy Trail, whose mile markers reflect the original railroad mile markers running from north to south, with mile marker 0 in Richmond, Virginia. In her will, Elsa Scherer Burrows (1884-1955) left the family's 460-acre South Creek Ranch to the state in memory of her father Oscar Scherer, who invented a process for dyeing leather in 1872. After a year of preparation, Oscar Scherer State Park opened to the public in 1956. Three decades later, local environmentalists began campaigning for the state to purchase and protect adjoining Florida scrub habitat, and with help from The Nature Conservancy, Sarasota County, and wide public support, the state purchased an additional 922 acres from Palmer Ranch in 1991. The park now preserves more than 2 square miles of natural land in a rapidly developing region and provides resource-based recreation for over 112,000 visitors annually.