The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-28
SEA-GO|NG TRAINS
 WILL SOON RUN FIagIer's FIsrida Keys Railway
 Is Progressing
QUICK TRIP TO HAVANA
Vice President of Road Denies Re ports That Project Has Been Abandoned and Says 1t Will
 Be Completed.

New York october a.-(Special)- 1.-The announcement was made here today by representatives of Henry NJ. Flagler that the ocean going railroad which he is building to Key West will be opened to traffic as far as Knights Key, 109 miles south of Miami. on or about January To next and that steamers will be put In operation from that point to Havana. This decision to open the road to trathc for the greater part of it's course year ahead of the time set for its final com pletion Is MT Flagler's reply to the re- ports that the building of the road has been given up.
 "The road has not been abandoned and there Is no intention of abandoning it, said Vice President ]. R. Parrott. who is in general charge of the construction. "On the contrary, we expect to have trains running as far as Knights Key with steamships operating between that point and Havana by the middle of Jan uary. Knights Key, which is to serve as the temporary terminus of the ocean extension, is about two-thirds of the way from Miami to Key West. The opening of this section of the line to traffic does not mean, however, that only two-thirds of the work Is completed. Fully 80 per cent of the land work between this point and Key West is finished. Nor is it true that any engineering difficulties have been encountered that will prevent the completion of the lower part of the ex- tension Every engineering problem con nected with the building of the viaducts that will carry the line over the open water sections on this portion of the route has been met and solved in building the part of the road already finished.
 Most of the material required for the completion of the ocean line has been de- livered and paid for It is not true that the cost of the road thus far has greatly exceeded the estimate, as has been re- ported The road has been built within the estimated cost and while it is impos- sible in work of this nature to practice all of the economies possible in ordinary land construction, the completion of the line Is in nowise beyond the financial abll- ity of MT. Flagler."
 The Key West extension of the Florida, East Coast railroad, which Henry M. Flagler projected during the Spanish war for the purpose of bringing Cuba into more direct connection with the United States, and on which he has had an army of between three and four thousand men employed for the past two years. differs in many respects from any railroad ever before built. For more than a hundred miles it runs practically at sea- following the line of tho Florida Keys from the mainland to Key West. All of the ma chinery employed had to be mounted on floating barges and the workmen were housed in floating dormitores on some sections of the work. All the supplies used were transported from the mainland and large fleet of vessels was employed in the construction. The road is reported 10 have cost nearly S1G0,000 Il mile to build It will shorten the journey between the United States and Havana by from ten to twelve hours. and with the inau- guration of car ferries from Key West to the Cuban capital when the road is completed, it will establish an all-rail route between this country and Cuba.