Construction was underway on the Live Oak, Tampa and Charlotte Harbor Railroad when he learned of the Florida Southern's plans.

In the agreement, Plant would not build the Live Oak, Tampa and Charlotte Harbor Railroad, past Gainesville.

[1] The Florida Southern Railway reached Pemberton Ferry (known today as Croom) by 1884 and would be extended west from there to Brooksville in January 1885.

[4] Trabue owned waterfront property and successfully convinced the Florida Southern to instead run the railroad to his planned town, which would become Punta Gorda.

Trabue offered half of his land holdings to the Florida Southern in exchange for the railroad coming to his town.

[5] Surveying work to determine the route for the Charlotte Harbor Division was accomplished by local civil engineer Albert W. Gilchrist, who would later serve as Florida's 20th governor.

[1] The Florida Southern was fully absorbed into the Plant System in 1896, which was then sold to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902.

The Florida Southern's northern lines began along Main Street in Gainesville, where it continued south from Henry Plant's Live Oak, Tampa and Charlotte Harbor Railroad.

From Ocala, the main line continued south-southeast to Leesburg before turning southwest to Center Hill, Pemberton Ferry, and Brooksville.

The Florida Southern's northern segment would play an important role in the Atlantic Coast Line's network after it was acquired in 1902.

From Bartow, it continued south roughly paralleling the Peace River through Fort Meade, Wauchula, and Arcadia before coming to an end at Punta Gorda along Charlotte Harbor.

[13] One of the Atlantic Coast Line's first orders of business regarding the Plant System after acquiring it was extending the Florida Southern's Charlotte Harbor Division south to Fort Myers.

[10] The company further extended the line to Naples and Collier City (on Marco Island) during the Florida land boom of the 1920s.

This segment is operated by the Florida Northern Railroad, a shortline run by Regional Rail, LLC, which crosses the S Line in Ocala.

Trackage from Homeland (just south of Bartow) to Bowling Green is now the southernmost segment of CSX's Valrico Subdivision, which continues to carry phosphate traffic.

Much of U.S. Route 17 was built alongside the Charlotte Harbor Division and the highway has largely been widened into the abandoned right of way between Bowling Green and Arcadia.