Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

A RAILWAY THROUGH THE SEA. 137 stoking his boiler and sticking to his job until the moment when the sea swallowed him up. Another lone hero on one of these cement barges found himself blown out into the wild Atlantic. Instead of giving up the game as hopeless, he set to work with his wrench to loosen the bolts which held the cypress box of a water-tank to the deck. Stowing himself in the tank, he stayed there until the barge sank under him ; the big box floated off, and he drifted in it right side up for several days until he reached the coast of Nassau.” As soon as the line was finished to Knight’s Key, a distance of 109 miles from Miami, it was decided to erect a station here, build a it a place of embankment was consequently carried which is connected with the open sea by a Knight’s Key Terminus. dock, and make call. A trestle 2,000 feet long to the dock, deep channel, permitting vessels of twenty feet draught to come alongside the dock itself. Between Knight’s Key and Pigeon Key there is an opening of 10,250 feet. Of this distance, 7,300 feet is crossed by a viaduct. We now come to another gap, some 22,900 feet in length, which is bridged by a 7,800-foot via- duct and by some very long embankments. Between Bahia Honda Key and West Cum- berland Key another gap occurs of 5,600 feet, 4,950 feet of which is spanned by a viaduct with a 250-foot drawbridge for vessels. Many of the islands, particularly those be- low Bahia Honda, are mere swamps, densely covered with mangrove. To throw up an embankment Dredging across them was largely a matter , , . of dredging, and for this par- ticular kind of dredging the engineers con- structed a new type of machine. To feed any CONSTRUCTING LONG KEY VIADUCT.