The St. Lucie County tribune. (Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Fla.) 1905-1920, 1910-01-14
"THE RIVIERA OF AMERICA"
continued from page y


light from rowboat might tempt ever
the prOwess of an ex-president.
To the story writer and novelist the
social life of the hotels and the legend,
that cluster around so many landmarks
afford rich material for tales of romance
One of the most stirring novels of re.
cent years has it's scenes in Florida.
Besides this all down the coast,
through orange and palm groves and
pine groves and by lake and river, run
beautiful driveways that make auto
MODELLING a delight. A highway is
planned to extend from Jacksonville to
Miami three hundred and fifty miles!
Already important links in this great
boulevard have been built of c0ralinc
rock and oyster shells.
The climate of Florida is unsurpassed
and every year the "winter season"
becomes longer as tourists discover
that it is hardly any warmer in Florida
in April than it is further north. Even
in midsummer the sea breeze makes
the nights pleasant. In January mid
day temperatures of eighty degrees
and even higher are not uncommon.
Warm all the winter, southern Florida
is no hotter in summer than the shores
of Virginia.
But while it's climate and natural
beauties have made Florida paradise
in winter, its industrial progress in the
last decade has been little short of
marvellous. Its agricultural POSSIBLE
tiles are just beginning to be realized.
Every year timber by the millions of
feet is being cut out of its pine forests
and sawed up into building material on
the banks Of the rivers. The turpen-
tine industry alone engages the atten-
ton of twenty thousand men in five
hundred establishments! From Jack
sonvile south stretch orange groves,
plantations, celery farms.
sugar cane bottoms, and the finest
truck gardens in the world, supplying
the northern markets in winter with
fruits and vegetables of all kinds.
Most of the plumes that adOrn the
winter hats of the Fifth avenue maiden
come from the ostrich farms of Florida,
where hundreds of Ostriches thrive as
in their native Australia. The oyster,
coral and sponge fisheries along the
coast are the richest in this country.
The phenomenal growth of Jackson
vile is typical Of development all over
Florida. ''rell me in cold figures
something of JacksonvilIe's progress"
! asked Mr.. H. H. Richardson, secre-
tary of the board of trade of that
city. This was his reply:
"On May 3, 1901, fire swept clean
six hundred and fifty-five acres in the
heart of Jach sOnvile. Three thousand
five hundred buildings were destroyed |
The population of the town was then
twenty-seyen thousand. The burned
area has been rebuilt with structures
worth twenty-five million dollars, and
not a trace of the cOnhagratiOn re-
mains! The population of Jacksonville
S now over sixty thousand.
"We have several new banks and
public buildings that would be a credit
% any city of half million population.
We have the largest ice-manufactur-
ng plant in the south. In twelve
months more than thousand buildings
we're put up in Jacksonville! Our ex-
'orts are increasing at an almost I'M
,recedented rate"
DuJ Tile uTt all vi iOTIud . STcdlIltSS
viii come true when the extension of
he Florida East Coast Railway is
nished. The practical imagination Of
henry M. Flagler conceived this rail
cad long before the United States de-
ided to dig the Panama Canal. But
ot until work began on the canal did
ar. Flagler attempt to put into exc
ution his daring project-unique in
he history Of railroad construction.
he obstacles seemed insurmOuntable.
'uiding railroad from Miami to the
cast and then on down across the Flor.
la Keys through Florida Bay and the
ltlantic ocean to Key West-in all one
undred and fifty-four miles-seemed
, many a hopeless undertaking.
But already a part of this fifteen
liliOn.dOllar dream has been realized.
thousands of tons of sediment have
cen removed from the bottom of the
ay and the shadows of the Atlantic
nd thousands of tons of rock and &C.
ent have been dumped into the water,
akng magnificent roadbed through
lie waves. On top of this stone and
,ment have been constructed, in fifty
,Ot spans, concrete viaducts that rise
lirty feet abOve the water. defying
irrents and tides. The longest of
ese stretches from Long Key to
onch key-orer ten thousand feet!
n the keys themselves palm forests
ave been leveled and rock embank
(eOntinlled IN napa ~