History of Florida's Oceanic Railroad

Thomas P. Ghastry, writing in the Manufacturer's Record, of Baltimore, under date of the 10th inst., as follows an interview with H.M. Flagler on the building of the Florida East Coast Railway which work now well under way.

"The survey has been made, the practicability proven and New York York and Key West are to be connected by rail."

In that sentence Henry M. Flagler made definite announcement of his determination to carry through a project which will be one of the most unique in the engineering annals of the country, the construction of the oceanic railroad

I will call it "oceanic" because it crosses nearly 100 miles of what is a part of the Atlantic ocean. I had called upon Mr. Flagler to talk with him not about the work he has, especially in Florida in creating inducements for men of influence and great wealth to see the South by providing for them creature comforts, not about his palace hotels which have given the East Coast of Florida the character of the American Riviera or his providing railroad and other facilities for making that section blossom as the rose, but about the extension from Homestead of his Florida East Coast Railway to Key West, thereby connecting the South with the Spanish main, the West Indies and the republics of South and Central America. It was a part of interesting talk given me by Mr. Flagler, in which he said "I have long thought of a railroad to Key West, but the engineering difficulties seemed insurmountable. When the Panama Canal was decided on I determined to put to an engineering test the practicability of a railroad from the mainland of Florida to the port of Key West. Tides, currents, winds all sorts of things had to be reckoned with. The survey has been made, the practicability proven and New York and Key West are to be connected by rail. Here is a memorandum from my engineers showing what it all means" The facts of the memorandum are these" The distance from Miami to Key West is 154 miles. Of this 28 miles is completed to Homestead, the present terminus of the road. The work from Homestead south is made up in round numbers of 60 miles rock embankment through the waters separating the mainland from Key Largo and through the waters separating the different keys.

There are to be four concrete viaducts 31 feet above the water -- one from Long Key to Conch Key 10,500 feet; a viaduct across Knights Key channel 7,300 feet; a viaduct across Moser Key channel 7,800 feet and a viaduct across Bahia Honda Key channel, 4,950 feet, making a total of concrete viaduct 30,050 feet equivalent to 5.78 miles.

These viaducts are to be constructed of reinforced concrete 50-foot spans resting on piers set into solid rock and strengthened with piles. The base of the pier at rock surface is 28 feet and at the springing line of arch 20 feet 7 inches. From the water to the crown of the arch will be 25 feet. To that should be added the thickness of the arch at the crown, ballast, ties, etc, making the track 31 feet above the level of the water. Of the water openings there seven 25 feet each. These are in the solid embankment, and are only intended for rowboats and small craft.

Of drawbridges there are to be three with openings aggregating 410 feet. The remaining distance about 65 miles is made up of the islands or keys over which the road passes. After leaving the mainland the first key traversed is Key Largo, the largest of the entire group of Florida keys, being some 40 miles in length. Of this however, the railroad traverses only 15 miles. The names of the keys south of Key Largo in order are as follows: Plantation Key, Windleys Key, Upper Matecumbe, Lower Matecumbe, Long Key, Conch Keys, Grassy Key, Key Vaca, Crawl Key, knight's Key, Little Duck Key, Missouri Key, Ohio Key, Bahia Honda, West Summerland Key, Cudjoe Key, Sugar Loaf Key, Saddle Bunch Keys, Big Coppit Key, Rockland Key, Boca Chica, Stock Island and Key West.

There are a number of other keys in plain sight of the line of the road which the road does not traverse.
Many of these keys are beautiful, being covered with groves of cocoanuts, pine apples etc.

Terminal facilities at Key West will comprise a drydock and ten covered piers each 800 feet in length and 100 feet in width with basin 200 feet between piers. The ten piers will furnish berths for 40 ships 400 feet in length, with a depth of water ranging from 20 to 30 feet.

J.C. Meredith at Miami, Fla. is constructing engineer in charge all the work. The equipment to be used in the work is as follows: 6 tugs 1 sternwheel steamer, 16 barges 25x100 feet, 24 barges 30x100 feet, 12 barges 20x80 feet, 1 sand dredge, 1 earth dredge for filling the concrete viaducts, 8 barges 40x70 feet with concrete mixers and hoists, 8 pile drivers, 8 towing launches, 1 dispatch boat, 4 quarter boats, 100 dinghys and a wharf at Bahia Honda.

The material used in the construction of the arches (viaduct) will be as follows: 206,100 cubic yards sand, 286,800 barrels hydraulic cement, 176,900 cubic yards stone, 4810 tons steel.

These keys or islands are rich hammock lands and the construction of the railroad across them will develop for it a large traffic in fruits and vegetables like that of Dade county from which thousands of carloads of tomatoes, Irish and sweet potatoes, celery, eggplants, peppers, snap beans and cucumbers are shipped annually.

Key West is the second largest city in Florida and is the nearest point in the United States to Cuba, the eastern entrance of the Panama canal. The extension will therefore not only be the scenic line of the United States as far as ocean travel by land is concerned, but it will afford the shortest and quickest route to the Pacific by way of the Panama canal.

The great work of this extension extension to Key West is a logical climax to the wonderful and successful endeavors of Mr. Flagler in Florida which have had a marked influence in recent remarkable development of the South due largely to better facilities for getting the investing and up building part of the American public better acquainted with the the South, its people and its resources.
[The Daytona Gazette-News. (Daytona, Fla.) October 21, 1905. Submitted by KT]

PLANT-FLAGLER CONSOLIDATION
Important Transportation Changes that Confront the State Florida

From the Tampa Herald
Events are multiplying which give more and more importance and significance to the consolidation of the Plant and Flagler steamship interests. It is very generally understood that the machine shops of the Plant Steamship Co. at Port Tampa will be closed on the 1st of July not to be reopened. This is a circumstance to be greatly regretted, but it seems to have been made necessary by the consolidation. Mr Flagler is president of the consolidated line while the manager is a man who has been making Savannah his headquarters for a long time so there is no personal reason why they should strain a point for the benefit of this locality.
But there are other things of more significance than this and they bear more heavily upon Jacksonville than the closing the shops at the Port bears on Tampa. Mr Flagler has been making some heavy investments about the mouth of the St Johns river which seems to prove that it is his intention to establish a port at that point for all West India shipping business which business it is the evident intention of the new Peninsular Occidental Steamship Co to control.

Mr Flagler has become the owner of the two railroads leading from Jacksonville to the Atlantic one going to Pablo and the other to Mayport. Pablo is five miles above the mouth of the river and possesses one of the finest beaches in the world. Here will be built a magnificent hotel said to be superior to anything he has ever constructed. It will remain open summer and winter and will be seconded by every attraction that ingenuity can devise and wealth supply.
But this is a comparatively small item. Mr. Flagler is making improvements at Mayport -- the mouth of the St Johns river -- which are so large and costly as to make his projects evident to even the most casual observer. Without going in to a description of them in detail as seen by the excursionist last week -- it is enough to say that they comprise a complete terminal system adapted fully and constructed for a seaport of high rank. Even if Mr. Flagler intended to connect his East Coast road with the Mayport road and make the latter place the port for transshipping the exports which come over his line, his construction work at Mayport is extensive beyond all possibility of what could be needed for that purpose. It therefore becomes apparent that Mr. Flagler has other designs much more comprehensive and far-reaching. Now comes the consideration of what they are. It is easy and natural to conclude in the light of events visible and in part just recited that in addition to the West India lines it is the intention to establish a line of steamers between New York and Mayport in opposition to the Clyde line and in competition connection with the Plant System of railroads with the Ocean and Savannah lines from New York to Savannah. Mayport is to be the seaport where all freight for the interior is to be transferred to rail to be distributed over the East Coast line and the Plant System. The terminal and dock facilities being constructed by Mr. Flagler at Mayport abut upon twenty-five feet of water about nine feet more than at Jacksonville permitting the use of vessels of a much higher class. Every intelligent reader can draw his own sound conclusions from these facts. It is plain that very important changes confront the people of Florida as regards their transportation systems and facilities. How the changes will affect Tampa is a problem worthy the immediate consideration of every citizen.
[The Florida star. (Titusville, Fla.), July 13, 1900. Submitted by KT]