Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1912-02-01
A WONDERFUL RAILROAD.

Last week there was completed an
American engineering achievement sec
ond only in magnitude to the Panama
Canal. The first through train on the
Florida East Coast Railway, with the car
OF the sole owner and builder, Henry M.
Flagler, entered Key West, 5S2 miles
south of Jacksonville, having travelled l2S
miles from land solid enough to be con-
sidered mainland, this distance including
IS miles of water in which were II miles
Of open sea. 1t was estimated that the
extension of the road from Miami would
cost SIS, 100000. II has already cost $20,-
100000, and in the three years it will
take to add the finishing touches if will
cost millions more. But the faith of the
farsighted builders is already beginning
to be justified.
The engineers say that if aeroplanes
had been as available in 1902 as they are
in 1912 they would have been spared
many weary months of searching for the
best way to take to Key West. They
first thought Of going across the Ever
glades from Miami to Cape Sable. 1t
meant two years of waist-deep toll in the
morass and tangled thicket before the
effort was given over. Then Turtle Har-
Dor on Key Largo was made the object
i've, and finally Al keys were picked out
as stepping stones from the mainland to
the southernmost city that is to be in
truth KEY in helping to unlock the vast
commercial opportunities created by the
Panama Canal. For the l28 miles from
Homestead south the track at first traver-
ses the swamps of the Everglades, where,
the land is either just above the water
level or is submerged. To make road
bed two dredges were started parallel,
throwing up ridge of mud in the narrow
space between them. This mud was
mari, or coral rock, which is 92 per cent
carbonate OF lime and hardenS on expo
sure into material that is ideal for the
purpose. Crossing the keys themselves
presented no particular difficulties after
the way had been hacked through the
thickest vegation, but the problem OF
how to link one of these little coral Islands
to the next was the question OF whole
work. The solution was reached by
construction OF viaductS or concrete arch
es, and bridges with steel girders or iron
trusses laid on concrete piers. The water
was not deep-from 10 to 80 feet-but
between the keys the long reaches are
exposed to the full sweep of the terrible
West Indian hurricanes. CofferdamS
were built, the mud was scraped away
to find the underlying rock, holes were
bored in this rock, piles IA for each pier
we're driven into the rock when steel
punches had m.de holes for them, and
on this solid underpinning cement was
poured through pipes, to harden under
the water. Upon this base, few inches
above the tide-level, the concrete piers
were erected. Laying the rails upon
their ll-foot sawed-oak ties bolted to
the girders was a final task comparatively
SIMPLE. In the case OF the Long Key
bridge. extending for nearly three miles,
trap rock for the archways was brought
from Clinton on the Hudson river. The
Knights Key bridge, nearly seven miles
long, means five miles OF S0-foot steel
glrders laid on concrete piers aid two
miles of archways. The Bahia Honda
bridge, nearly mile long, has q trusseS
from 125 to 25O feet long and nine arches
of concrete. The rails of this bridge are
80 feet above tide-level and 90 above
bedrock.
The first constructing engineer, J. c.
Meredith, who died of overwork in 1909,
used to say, "No man has any business
being connected with this work who
can't stand grief" The labor question,
as at Panama in the French regime, has
proved constant vexation. In the first
three years 10000 MEN, mainly recruited
from the ranks Of fthe unemployed in Phil
adelphia and New York, were taken to
the keys, although the average working
force numbered about 400. Like the ia
maica blacks in the Canal Zone, as soon
as they had earned little they drifted
away to dissipate their wages in drink
and vicious living. Booze boats" fitted
under cover OF night from camp to camp,
engaged in the contraband traffic in liquor.
All the fresh water had to be brought
from the mainland. AT FIRST they tried to
find potable water by boring 1000 feet
through limestone and coral rock, but
falling in that, two daily trains of flat cars
were sent out across the keys from the
100 600 gallon tank built just south of
Homestead. An emergency hospital, in
charge of two orderlies, was part OF every
labor settlement. Having brought the
men and material over great distances,
with 80 tramp vessels to carry crushed
rock and another fleet to bring the nee
essary coal, the engineers were face to
face with the grave issue OF how to cope
with the destructive force and fury OF the
winds and waves.
In October, 1906. 1909 and 1910, the
vindictive might of three hurricanes spent
itself, not harmlessly, upon mans daring
invasion Of the sea inthe marine pathways
between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf.
In 1906, atwo-story barge, with l45 work
men aboard, was torn from its moorings
and hurled to destruction upon Florida
Reef. Some weeks aiterward, from ports
as far distant as London or Buenos Ayres,
to which their rescuers had taken them,