Evening star., 1908-01-22

100000 a mile. The East Coast railroad
of Florida. Of which it is an extension, is
| owned exclusively by Mr.. Henry NJ. Flag
/ Ter of the Standard Oil Company. Vino
Is counted as one of the six richest men
| in the world. He owns over 700 miles
Of railway. and will soon have 500 miles.
/ He owns steamship lines and seven Dig
! hotels, and has about 1900 men upon
! his pay roll. including 1000 laborers en-
gagged in the construction of this re-
/ mar rka BILE read across the keys It's COM
| pletioi. will round out Mr.. FidglerS plans
| for the development of the east coast
| of Florida. in which lie has spent twenty
/ three years of labor and NOR" than a
I hundred millions of dollars. Mr.. 'Rocke-
/ fellel. his life partner in the commits
sion business at Cleveland. and after
ward in the Standard Oil Company. gives
generously of his great wealth for edu-
cational purposes: Mr.. Carnegie POUNDS
/ libraries. but Mr.. Flagler. who. has a
practical and commercial mind. has de-
voted his abilities and his means to the
material development of state which
was almost as primitive as Il wider
ness when he first came To Florida.
! When the idea Was Born.
| He told me last spring that the idea of
building railroad along the coral islands
10 Key West and sending through sleep
ing cars from Chicago and New York
| 10 Havana came into his mind one after
noon in lS9S. when he was rejecting upon
| the possible consequences of the Spanish
| American war and the independence of
cuba. knowing the extraordinary fer
| tllitE of that island and its possible ca
| pacity for the production OF sugar coffee
| and other tropical staples. he foresa W
| a future development that would furnish
| business for transport a ion lines far be-
| yond anything that had yet been realized
! he saw that the products of Cuba would
| be distributed throughout the entire area
| of the United States. and that the de-
velopment of its natural resources would
attract millions of capital. millions of
! laborers and hundreds of thousands of
| entcrpriSing Americans.
This immigration would create an eX
| tensiVe market Cuba already buys more
| than a hundred millions of dollars worth
| Of foreign merchandise every year. and
| about half of it is shipped from the
| United States. The island is capa bic Of
supporting at least ten and probably
| twelve. millions Of Inhabitants. and Mr..
tiaSler believes that ultimately it will
have several times the present popula-
| ton. 1t also occurred to him that in
addition To the commercial advantages
that would follow the national develop
ment of Cuba. a railway to Key West
would be of supreme stra ;egic Importance
to the government of the United States.
which had assumed the responsibility of
preserving the peace and protecting the
foreign population and property in that
turbulent new republic.
These thoughts occupied Mr.. FlaGlar's
mind for several weeks. when he sent
for ]. r. Parrot. the general manager
OF his railway system and his right arm
in all his Florida enterprises. and di
rected that surveys he made to determine
whether Il railway could be built across
I he keys Engineers were employed with
the same promptneSS that characterizes
all or ms undertakings. and after two
or three years. they made a favora BILE re-
port and traced the route that is now
being followed along the coral formation
soutn OF the tip end of Florida
Building Operations Ordered.
When Mr.. F'lagIer's plans became known
there was a great deal of discussion in
the daily newspapers and the professional
journals concerning the feasibility of the
project. and some eminent authorities ad-
Vised him to undertake the construction
of a railway line TO Mars or to the moon
or to any other old place that was be
yond the reach of human endeavor. His
faith was not disturbed in the slightest
degree; he became even the more deter
mined He sent for Mr. Parrott one day
and said:
Can that road be built?
1T can" replied Mr.. Parrott
Then go ahead and build it Those
We're all the orders Mr.. Parrott ever got.
He has been assisted in carrying out the
novel scheme by Mr.. Il. T. Cioff. the gen
eral superintendent: Mr. J. +. Beckwth.
the traffic manager: Third Vice President
| j. +. Ingraham of the Flagler system.
and many other able subordinates. By
reason yf their energy the track has not
only been constructed in manner that
challenges the admiration of every engi-
neer but the work is now more than
year in advance of Mr.. Parrott'S predic-
tons TO Mr. F'lagler.
1t was so unusual and hazardous that
no contractor would undertake the job.
In several respects 1t was more difficult
than the Panama canal
Greatness of the Work.
1t was not only necessary to bring all
the workmen from distant sources of sup
ply, but they must be lodged and fed in
enormous floating dormitories. which were
anchored from place to place as the work
progressed. Everything they ate and used
must be brought to them over the water.
and all of the construction material, eX-
cept the coral rock that was dredged out
of the bottom of the sea. must be trans
ported long distance.
The most important and novel concrete
work ever attempte ed us found in the via
ducts that span the dee per and more eX-
posed waters of the ocean. The longest
of them consists of $50 arches of fifty
and sIxty-foot centers and Isl piers. max
ing a total distance of lo,ii4.6, feet be
tween abutments at the SprlnglnS-fine,
from Long Key 10 Grassy Key The track
is laid and the cars will run thirty-one
feet above highWater where the depth
varies from thirteen to twenty feet, with
a tide running four miles an hour. In the
construction OF this viaduct $4,000 bar
relS of cement We're used, III ,ND cubic
yards of crushed rock, 1864 cubic yards
of sand. 800 tons of steel reinforcing
rods $1,000 lncal feet of piling and ,
GOO coo feet of dressed lumber for arch
rittn tflE3sI
Of the magnitude of the work and solidity
of the railway bed.
AS / have said. the trains commenced
running on the 18th Of January, connect
ing at knights Key with steamers for
Havana and Mr.. Flagler hopes to pub
lish the through schedule to Key West
before the end of this year