The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-27
CUBA IS COMING
 NEARER UNCLE SAM Sea Going PulImans to Be Put A RAILROAD TO HAVANA Remarkable Engineering Work of Henry M. Flaeler Along Eastern
 and Southern Coast of
 Florida.
A RAILROAD TO HAVANA

early days of next January it will be pos sbe for the first time for, Americans to make an ocean journey by rail. From comfortable seat in parlor car the traV- eler will be able to look out on one side across the rolling pillows of the Atlantic and on the other side over the blue waters of the Gulf of Florida, the two comming- ling directly beneath the tracks which support his train The tracks themselves will be invisible, of course, so he can enjoy the novel sensation of going to sea by train.
 Here and there the Voyage by ocean railway will cross dimnutve coral keys and at intervals he will traverse larger dslets through groves of tangled palms. lHe will set down at length on Knights GKey, the southermost point in the United States, reached by rail, and the tempo nary terminus of the only seafaring rail- road ever built. There he may step abroad fast steamer and six hours later land in Havana. having travelled all but 1l5 miles of the distance from his starting point by train.
 The effect, so far as the traveller is Aooncerned, will be the same as if won derworking genii should pick up the Pearl of the Antilles and move it d hun dred miles or more nearer to the United States The journey to Cuba from New York or Chicago or any point in the eastern half of the country will be short ened in point of time nearly one-third Leaving New York on any wintry even ing the traveller will be able on the second afternoon to step ashore in the Cuban capital, having made the entire trip in less than forty eight hours.
 This win be made possible by the open ing to traffic of a section of the rail road at sea" that Henry M. F'lagler has been pushing out over land and water along the thiclSly dotted line of coral is- lands that curve from the Florida main lend southwest to Key West. When work was begun, about two years ago, it was announced that trains would be running in three years, but so rapidly has con- struction gone forward that already more than two-thirds Of the distance has been covered, and the line is almost ready to be opened for more than 100 of the 15l miles of it's projected length.
 The building of this remarkable ocean highway is regarded by MT. Flagler as the crowning achievement of the great development he has been carrying on in Florida. Though he has long been prom inent in other great industrial interprises MT. Flaglers real work-or, at least that in which he takes the lleenest inter- cst-has been transforming the eastern half of Florida from a barren waste of sand into d thriving industrial section and the winter playground of the country the only counterpart in the United States of the far-famed Riviera of Europe Though sometimes spoken of as a hobby. his development of Ponce de Leons land of perpetual youth has been conducted as q business enterprise pure and simple.
 A frln hi an scheme of carrying his railroad line out across the coral islands to Key West and of conveying his trains from there by rapid car ferries directly to the Cuban capital, first took tangible shape in his mind during the Spanish war. At that time the certainty of closer political and trade relations between this country and Cuba became evident. as did the commer cial and strategic importance of some means of quickly reaching the island re- public from the United States. The dream grew in Mir Flagers mind and he di- rected that a survey be made by engi- neers to determine whether such road as he imagined could be constructed. When the voluninous reports, estimates, drawings and blue prints of the engineers were submitted ,Mr. Flagler glanced at them hastily antp turning to J. R. Par rott, vice. e-president of his railway and lis right hand man in all his Florida un- dertakings, said:
 "All | want to know is whether the road can be built
 "Yes; it can replied MT. Parrott.
 Then go ahead and build it. Mir. Flagler directed.
 That was in 1905. Since then the dirt has been flying ceaselessly. Immense pile drivers have been sinking foundations, huge dredges have been sucking up sand from the bottom of the sea to construct rr1h had .af hNfu cnra 5000 and 4000 men has been pushing it's ~ay steadily southward from Miami out oyer the waves and the tiny islands to- ward Key West
 There was no precedent in the history of railway construction for the building of this sort of a road Consequently the difficulties were many and the problems to be solved unusual In the first place. it was necessary to assemble a vertable navy including steamboats, tugs, lighters hundreds of barges and bateaux. launches floating derricks. pumps, pile drivers, and repair shops, for, since this was to be a railroad at sea, sea craft had to be uti- 1ized chiefly in it's construction. The Florida keys traversed by the line are mostly inhabited and afforded neither shelter nor support for the army of men employed. It was necessary to establish camps, transport supplies, build hospi- tals for the sick, and establish reading and club rooms in which the workers could find relaxation from the monotony of their isolated lives In some cases big houseboats or floating dormtories were anchored in protected spots to serve as living quarters. Even the drinking wa | ter must be transported in huge tanks on | barges distance of a hundred miles or | more.
 Nearly all the building materials, in- | cluding the ingredients of the concrete, | the timber for piing, the heavy stone for abutments and the crushed stone for the l rip-rap work put in as protection against the action of the waves, were | brought to the points where they were rsed on barges lowed by tugs and steam CTS. Only the ballast or filling for the | roadbed was secured on the spot. On the | various islands this was obtained by ex- | cavating and breaking up the coral rock, | which makes bed of gleaming white. | Where the line crosses open water filling l was obtained. by the use of huge pumps | which sucked up sand from the bottom | and dropped it into the fill. Thus the en- | gineers forced Old Ocean to yield not on- l ly the right of way but as we'll, part of | the construction material
 Although this extraordinary railroad l will cross many slets between the man- l land and Key West there are traversed l some broad stretches of water where the 1 traveller will be entirely out of sight of | land One of these is encountered when | the line leaves Long Key. Here for two | miles the tracks are laid on concrete | viadIct each arch of which spans 5o l