Evening star., 1937-08-29

Ft"MdS IoreTSedS htghDdy TO,
Key West Will be opeFed merit
Winter. The story Of mans efforts
to link the Keys to the n.atnland-
efforts that cost millions of dollars
and 200 Hres-ts told In the tollow-
ing article.
BY the Associated Press.
KEY WEST. Fla. August 28.-
Henry M. Flagler, white-haired pio-
neer OF Florida's East Coast, closeted
himself in his Office one day In 1905,
pored over architects sketches Of mas
sive concrete viaducts spanning miles
Of open water and visualized trains
running out to sea.
With all his imagination, little did
Flagler dream that another day would
come to see automobiles speed at 10
miles An hour over those same huge
viaducts and bring promise Of resur-
rection to dead city.
Scof1ers called the plan to send
locomotives steaming over viaducts
and picturesque tlets to Key West
"Flagler's folly" But the trains did
rumble out to sea, ITO miles to Key
West; and they kept running for Is
years-from the day the overseas rail-
way was completed at cost of $50
100000 and 200 lives until the dis
astrous Labor day hurricane left those
twin steel ribbons twisted and use
less.
People Have High Hopes.
Key West was Americas Gibral-
tar" then, thriving port, the Ma
tion's leading cigar-manufacturing
oity Now 1t Is only . ghost, but
when the overseas highway is COM
pleted over Flagler's concrete and
steel piers next January 1t will rise
again. its people hope, this time as a
tourist resort.
Flagler, then 76, began TO plan the
extension to Key West soon after the
last rail Of the Florida East Coast
Railway was laid to Homestead, 20
miles south Of Miami.
He accompanied engineers down
the keys with surveying and sounding
instruments In comparative secrecy
Actual work began = few months
later
Workers were recruited in the
North, most Of them from New Yorks
Bowery, some from Chicago. For
seven years they labored to cut
through jungle growth and build the
roadbed through snake infested
swamps and over Iagoons and straits
through which strong ocean currents
ooursed into the Gulf of Mexico.
Concrete arches and pillars rose
out Of the ocean, at some places from
solid bedrock 80 feet under water.
Many workers lost heart and quit.
There was standing order for 400
new employees q week.
Hurricane LAshed Keys.
A hurricane lAshed the Keys in 1908
and 14e men died in the swirling
waters. The next year another storm
swept over Key West and up the
coast The workers were better pre-
pared this time. and only a dozen men
were lost. Accidents claimed addi-
tionAl lives.
The second storm did greater dam
age. Five steel spans were swept
away and the roadbed was washed
out in places. Plans were revised. the
viaducts altered to permit 4 freer
how Of water into the Gulf, and work
continued.
On January ~. 1917, Flagler rode
triumphAntly into Key West on the
first train TO reach the Nations
Southenmost city.
1t was q proud day for him. Bhr-
ing bands and cheering Thousands
greeted his train. A thousand school
children threw roses before him as
military units escorted him through
the city. Ships in the harbor saluted
with booming cannon.
'Flagler's Folly" was now ''the
eighth wonder OF the world"
F1agler died the next year, but the
overseas extension earned $4,000, 900
for his estate In the first 10 years of
operation. Much Of that was due to
heavy freight trafiic that went on to
Cuba by huge car-ferries.
Dark Days Ahead.
Dark days were ahead, however,
for the city which hailed ~ outlet
to the mainland as mighty boon to
commerce.
Key Vests troubles, parAdoxioA.ly
began almost with the arrival Of the
railroad.
Long before Henry NJ. F1agler
thought Of his railroad Hey West
prospered-was, In fact, the State s
largest city for . decade Key West
reached It's peak Of $4,000 about 1896.
Then, slowly. It declined. When
the railroad arrived IN 1912 the popu-
lation WAS 10000.
Helplessly, Key West watched its
industries slip away The Gibraltar
Of America" lost most Of its i'm
portance a. . port when shipping