The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-11-04
RAILROAD THAT
 WILL RUN TOCUBA Out of Sight of Land in a
 Pullman A PICTURESQUE ROUTE American Enterprise to Establish Di rect Railway Service From New York to Havana-How Road
 Will Be Built.
A PICTURESQUE ROUTE


 turbed Cuban republic by rail; conver- sion of the already thriving city of Key West into the "Hoboken of Havana" with it's docks thronged with huge double decked ferry boats; construction of great railway line that goes to sea, leap ing from island to island with long via ducts and bridges on which the passen- ger bound from New York to Cuba will see from the ear windows nothing but the blue waters of the Atlantic on the one side and the blue waters of the Gulf of Mexico the other; an engineering feat Involving problems now solved for the first time-all that and much more is in- yolved In the extension now in progress of the Florida East Coast railroad south from Miami, it's present southern termi- nus to the tip of the long sickle shaped series of coral islets which the peninsula of Florida has thrown out into the tropic sea. Within three years, unless some unexpected interruption occurs, the tour ist may take an ocean voyage in a Pull ,man conveyed in highest comfort along the line of the Florida keys, and thence in huge car ferry nearly 100 miles across the straits, and out Of sight of land, to Havana.
 thousand picturesque undertakings have marked the building of American railroads. Untraversable mountain ranges nave been bored, suspension bridges as sembled amidst the swirling spray of cat aracts bottomless swamps filled in with the debris of demolished mountains. Yet none more picturesque has been evolved than this work due to the constructive imagination of Henry M. F'lagler, who has projected an American railroad that will go further to sea than any other yet constructed.
 Route of the Road.
 From Miami to Key West along the route which has been selected for the gi- gantic enterprise it is 154 miles as the engine will go. In the mainland section the line has already followed as far as possible, the spaces not cross-hatched in the map with the shadngs which show swamp to Homestead, a distance of twenty-four miles. Thence across the vast, nearly inundated prairie that bor- ders the shallow sounds protected by the long reef of islands, over Jewish Creek, to Key Largo, the biggest of the entire chain. On this key fifteen miles of rail road will be laid. After that, now with short, now with long jumps, the whole series will be traversed through Lower Metacomb, Grassy, Gravel, Vaccas, and then with immense spring across a channel 15,000 feet wide to Bahia Honda, where little harbor will be created, en- abling direct train communication with Havana even before the line Is compile ted to Key w est Deep urauSnI vessels can secure admittance at this point, and the distance to Havana is only twenty miles greater than from the city at the end of the crescent of keys, where ultimately a great seaport will be constructed with terminals, wharves and docks. From the harbor of Key West the car floats, each capable of conveying a train of thirty cars, will ply to the Cuban capital.
 Nature has assisted in the project. The little coral insects whose secretions have been petrified so plentifully all along the Florida peninsula have prepared a broad flat surface to meet the needs of the engineers, some portions of it appearing Just above the water in the form of keys-low flat islands covered with sedge md jungle in the uncultivated portions; with pineapples, lemons and cocoanut groves where man has fixed his habita- tlon-some of it submerged a few feet be- heath the waves that tumble in from the deeper parts of the sea. The coral rock provides a natural ballast-one that may be dug out In chunks large and small And used for filling where the line crosses one of the swampy tracts of the region.
 The work is well under way. Each practical problem is being solved as 1t arises For q railroad thus to go to sea As something new in the history of en- sneering, but inventive genius Is prov Ing itself equal to the task. The greater expense is to be explained not only in the large mileage of bridges and viaduets, but in the exposed character of the line, for the cost exceeds that of average rail road construction-about $95,000 a mile, which is perhaps three times greater than that in ordinary flat country where no long bridges have to be built The total involved is from fifteen to twenty million dollars.
 Work Began in 1905.
 The construction work began in 1905 on the basis of surveys which had been made previously. All the grading of the section of the road on the mainland has now been finished and part of the viaduct work completed. Over nearly all the dis tance, fortunately, there is foundation of coral. which allows the concrete, rein forced with steel, to be firmly moorod with steel supports No roadway in the world, anywhere, experts say, will be safer than this and none more beautiful as it lies gleaming white in the tropical sun. In few places. where the founda- tion is sand, plng Is used to afford a foundation. Every here and there dredges are actively pumping up sand from deer water, conveying it through pipes and de- posting it in shallow water to help in the construction of the line. Elsewhere are to be found dredges which eat their way over the flat land leaving a shallow canal on either side of the roadbed which they throw up
 
 going to sea" at this writing pushing their way across the keys, many of which are barren and untenanted, though few are inhabited by fishermen and wreck CTS some of them living in queer, pie turesque houses built stilts. As the narrow passages of water between the is- lands are crossed the construction crews Ind themselves often amidst the fleet of sponge fishers from Key West, who lift their valuable cargoes from the shoals about these islands
 Building a railway line across such a series of islands and stretches of open water naturally presents practical prob- lems in the housing of men. After the negro 1aborers have cleared out the dense tropical jungle on the uninha bited islands the construction crews of white men of various nationalities arrive. On the land they live in temporary wooden houses, or in some cases in well arranged tents. Fourteen camps have been estab- lIshed. each in a favorable location on firm ground. The water for drinking and cooking has to be transported from Mi ami: the food is as well cooked and va ried as is possible so far from urban mar kets. A hospital tent enables the camp physician properly to treat any case of illness The men in every way are made comfortable. Even an fmprovised bar her shop gives facilities for shaving and hair cutting at surprisingly low rates, ,rhe men who do the work on the water live in floating dormitories. two stories hiph neat and commodious. which are anchored somewhere near the great float