Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

A RAILWAY THROUGH THE FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILWAY EXTENSION. An Account of the Construction of a unique Railway which for many miles runs over the open waters of the Bay of Florida. TO travel from New York to Havana, the capital of Cuba, by train without change of cars is now a possibility, or rather probably will be by the time this article is in the reader’s hands. This is New York to Havana by Train. due to the construction of the Florida East Coast Railway extension, by which trains will run direct to Key West, and there be transferred to large ferry-boats, and carried across the sea to Havana, some 90 miles distant. To under- stand what this task has meant to the railway builder, a glance at the accompanying map of the district is necessary. Key West, an im- portant naval station belonging to the United States Government, is situated on a small island of that name, some 156 miles by boat from Miami, a small port on the mainland of Florida. Between Key West and Miami there runs a stretch of coral islands, called “ keys.” The railway has been carried to Key West by using these islands as stepping-stones. Some four years ago Mr. Henry M. Flagler decided to connect this outlying post of the United States with the mainland by rail. Mr. (1.408) Flagler is a millionaire, often referred to as the “ King of Florida,” who has done more than any other man to develop this country, and rightly believes that there is nothing like a railway for this purpose. He has certainly had experience in this direction, there being over 600 miles of iron road in Florida which have sprung into existence at his bidding. But his latest scheme was a decidedly origi- nal one. It offered problems which the rail- way builder had never been called upon to face. It virtually meant the constructing of a railway out to sea, for of the 156 miles of track which runs between Miami, on the mainland, and Key West, fully 75 miles lie over water, and a considerable portion over the sea itself. The first question the engineers had to answer was how far down from Miami the track could be laid on the mainland before jumping off on to the keys. To ascer- tain this, engineering parties Difficulties spent months at a time in the ~ * . Surveying. Everglades carrying out sur- veys. The Everglades may be likened to a large shallow lake, enclosing thousands of islets covered with dense thickets, and containing 9