Crittenden record=press. [volume] (Marion, Ky.) 1907-1909, 1908-04-02
SEA d0lAG RAILROAD.
All the Pleasures OF Ocean Travel
on a Pullman Palace Car.

which Henry NJ. Flagler is building
on concrete arches through the shall
low waters Of the ocean along the
garland of palm groves that cover the
keys of Florida, is now in operation
for a distance of 81 miles to knights
Key, and regular trains began run
ming over it Feb. 18th. Through
sleeping cars will be provided from
New York and Chicago, and they
ultimately will be carried across on a
ferryboat from Key West to Havana
making the distance in six hours.
the railway is more than half done,
and, as the present turminus at
Knights Key has all the facilities
for handling the traffic, Mr.. Flagler
decided to place the completed por-
ton In operation and have it earning
the expense Of maintenance, at least
while the remainder of the track is
finished to Key West. Practically
so per cent of the construction work
is done and every thing will be ready
for through trains to Havana by the
opening of the tourist season next
winter.
Knights Key, the present termiu-
US of the flagler system, is 100 miles
south of Miami, AZ miles north of
Key West and 115 miles north of
Havana. The road between Miami
and Knights Key is built % miles
upon mainland of Florida and 81 miles
across and between forty-two keys.
For nearly one.half of the distance
the railway track passes over the
water on concrete arches, whose
foundations rests upon the bottom of
the sea.
The first 20 miles of the line runs
through the everglades and mangrove
swamps, where thousands of tons of
rock filling was hauled in from the
ocean, and the grade was made by
two large steam dredges that burrow-
ed their own channels as they moved
along, one on either side of the
right of way, and lifted the earth
from the excavation upon the road
bed to form an embankment that is
now as solid as the earth itself. In
this way two canals have been built
one on either side Of the track thru
the everglades whi,h are protection
to the track and will serve another
useful purpose is assisting to drain
the mangrove swamps Of southern
Florida and make them habitable.
At the town of Homestead, %
miles south of Miami, the track
leaves the continent of North Ameri-
ca and starts upon Its way over the
ocean. Seventeen miles south of
that point it reaches Key Largo, the
largest Of the keys, which is Is miles
long and from there jumps from key
to key bv means of massive masonry
and emba kments of cement and cor
al rock, In crossing the deeper
channels several draw bridges have
been provided to permit of the pas
sage OF vessels. The intervening
water between the forty-two keys
varies in width from few hundred
feet to two miles are more, and in
depth from few inches to thirty
feet. The embankments are enrap-
ped with rock to prevent Washing
and are defended by piles and every
other device that engineers could in
vent to protect the roadway from the
attack of the water which is sometimes
stirred up into great violence by the
force of the wind. The track is 81
feet above high water so that the
passengers in the railway trains
may sit in the windows of Pullman
ears in serenity and have an oppor-
tunity of seeing how the Atlantic
ocean looks in a gale.
Knights Key, the present termin-
us of the East Florida Railway system
has a safe and almost landlocked
harbor mades by the outlying reefs
aud keys, and deep channel from