Complex sentence: Van Winkle hired hundreds of laborers to dredge out the salt marsh and blasted a cut into the lagoon from the sea, planted 5000 palm trees and built over a mile of meandering concrete paths.
Split into simpler sentences: Van Winkle hired hundreds of laborers to dredge out the salt marsh and blasted a cut into the lagoon from the sea. Planted 5000 palm trees and built over a mile of meandering concrete paths.