Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-03-09
RAIL- WAY TO KEY WEST
Comprehensive Plans of H. M.
Flagler.
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Planning the Most Important Ter
minal on the Gulf.
TO SEND TRAINS TO HAVANA
Big Transport to Carry the Cars
Across the Strait-Exports Of
Meat and Provisions.
TO SEND TRAINS TO HAVANA
BY WILLIAM p. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM p. CURTIS.
Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herald.
Although he Is seventy-six years old, Mr..
IL. NJ. Flagler, who has made Florida a
paradise, Is now engaged in what is prob
ably the most remarkable piece of rail-
way construction that was ever attempted.
1t Is also the most expensive. He proposes
to extend the East Coast railroad from
the mainland OF Florida to the Island of
Key West, a distance of 141 miles, regard
less Of tides. currents. winds and ali that
sort cot thing. Within the last few weeks
the Southern railroad has carried more
than 1000 laborers. Italians and Hunga-
rians. from New York who will be used in
construction work. and enormous quantities
OF building material have been shipped by
rail- and by sea.
Stretched along the Florida coast as far
as Key West is chain of hundreds of
small islands of coral formation: the result
of millions of years of labor by billions
of Industrious little insects which devote
their lives to the cause. The coral for
nations on the coast of Florida are among
the most remarkable of physical phenom-
ena In the universe. and the water is full
or other wonders, strange animal life that
Is not found anywhere else except along
the Bay of Naples and in certain parts or
ordinary plant, half vegeta Bile half animal
known as the sponge. and myriads of other
strange forms of life.
The reefs formed by the little insects
nave caught particles that have noated
through the air, and during the ages the
hois0ws and orevices have been gradually
nlled with earth and vegetable matter.
Thus islands have been formed with soil
that mas all been carried by invisible agen-
cles through the atmosphere The seeds
or trees and plants, useful and otherwise
have come on the wings of the wind in the
same way, and under the tropic sun all
kinds OF vegetables and fruits grow to per-
1ection-oranges, lines. bananas coccanuts
pineapples, mangoes and other fruits that
are found throughout the West Indies
There IL a great deal OF vacant land In
the Keys which offers an opportunity for
people who like hot climate TO engage
In fruit raising and market gardening as
soon as the Flagler railroad is finished and
transportation facilities are afforded
Inhabitants of the Keys.
ABOUT nifty of the keys are inhabited by
a sparse, mongrel population of Cubans
negroes, descendants of Carfb Indians
sand-hill crackers from Florida and
Georgia, castaways from wrecked vessels
beach-combers of all races and here and
there full-blooded descendant OF the Sem
1nole Indians that used to occupy Florida
rms mongrel population are called "conks''
- suppose after the coneh shells which
ahey gather in large quantities and ship to
market. They are mostly fishermen snnnpa
Batherefs and wreckers. Their ancestors
were pirates, and used to lure passing yes-
sels onto the rocks by showing false lights
and loot them. The cabins OF these fish
erInen often contain interesting articles
winch are part of the plumber of wrecks
IN generations past, and some of them are
very valuable. A friend who made a
cruise among the keys some years ago told
me that he found a service of solid silver
plate. exquisitely embossed, and bearing
Jhe .coat-of-arms of some proud family Of
spain In the cabin OF sponge fisherman
who claimed that he had inherited 1t from
several general lions of ancestors and
boosted that 1t must have been taken from
the cabin of some Spanish galleon that ran
upon these treacherous reefs Steamers
and sailing ships give them a wide berth
nowadays, although the keys are well
hghted by the government. The only nav
9gdton Is done by the small luggers of the
natives, who sail in and out without the
slightest fear. because they know the wa
tiers as the redman knows the forests Sand
hey. a small island about thirty miles
south OF Key West, is the most southerly
land of the United States Dry Tortugas
the most westerly of the keys was used
as prison by the military authorities dur
ing the civil war. and is now a quarantine
station Ghere are no roads on the key;
no carriages or other vehicles, and no ami
mats except dogs and cats. People go
about in boats. The children go to school
and on Sundays the natives go TO church
in boats, and the mail carriers serve the
island in that way.
Key Largo. the largest of all the islands.
runs for about thirty miles parallel with
the Florida coast, and from three to six
miles distant. 1t Is two miles wide at the
widest point. but there are spots where 1t
narrows down TO strip OF sand that one
could almost throw a stone across At the
southern end of the island is a small town
OF two or three hundred inhabitants called
Planters the largest settlement except
the city of Key West.
The Proposed Railway.
The East Coast railway of Florida, which
belongs TO Mr., F1agler personally-with a
few shares OF stock scattered among Its
employees TO make up board OF directors
mas had its terminus for several years at
the town of Miami. a few miles south of
Palm Beach
That is now the headquarters of the con-
struction engineers. and from there the
work Is being directed by Mr. fIagier per-
sonally. He has gone over the route again
and again with his engineers: has Inspected
ano revised all OF the plans of construction
and has suggested several of the most i'm
portant features which are entirely new
and experimental In railway building
The track passes down the coast of Flor
Ida through a mangrove swamp and what
seemed 10 be an almost impenetrable tropi-
cal jungle on the eastern edge OF the kvar-
glades to the town OF Homestead There
It crosses the narrowest part OF Card
SNunu 10 Key Largo. and Tor 126 miles fol-
lows the chain of islands 10 Long Key,
Windy Key. Grassy Key, Key vacca, Pine
Key. No-name Key Summerland, Sugar.
leaf and others in succession, until 1t reach
es Key West. There will be approximately
sixty miles OF water track and sixty-six
miles of land. The water between the KEYS
IS quite shallow, seldom more than six or
eight feet deep. and 1t Is filled with won
drCus fishes, sheliffish and other marine
life, including insects and harnacIes that
Will eat up a wooden pile or a steel beam
as II II were confectionery. Hence II would
be useless to build ordinary trestles or steel
bridges. and Mr.. Flagler has decided TO
substitute concrete viaducts twenty-fiye
feet above the water. Even IL IL were NOT
for the barnacles II would be very diff,.
cult and practically impossible to construct
trestles. because the bottom OF the sea is
"a solid mass OF coral and IL would be mac
essary to drill hole for every pile
The longest concrete viaduct will be 10 500
feet; there will be several between seven
ana eight thousand feet In length and in
Vulnerable shorter ones. These vfaducts
will rest on the solid rock bottom with
arches Atty feet In diameter and twenty
five feet above the surface OF the water at
high tide. The construction will be SO
heavy and firm that there will be no dam
ger from the surf or the winds