Petersburg to the waterfront to watch as the first ticket was auctioned off.
The first flight went off on New Year's Day, 1914, with much pomp and circumstance. An estimated 2,000 people paraded from downtown St. Petersburg to the waterfront to watch as the first ticket was auctioned off. Pheil, then in the warehouse business, won with a bid of $400 (a value equal to more than $11,200 today).