The Wilmington morning star., 1940-10-24
FLORIDA SPECIAL
READY FOR SEAS0N.
Historic Train Of Atlantic
Coast Line Begins 54th
Season Dec. 13

When the FLORIDA S pecial'
(East Coast), historic train OF the
Atlantic Coast Line railroad, be-
gins it's 54th consecutive winter
season on December 10, it will be
hauled over the system by a 2l2-
foot long streamlined locomotive
of three Diesel-electric locomotive
units, furnishing 5000 horse power
and fresh from the shops OF Elec-
tro-Motive corporation at La
Grange, Ill.
This train is operated between
New York and Miami, providing
through sleeping cars from Boston
on to it's destination. A n o h e r
FLORIDA Special &c Coast,
with similar passenger equipment
will be added, with its first trip
from New York on January 9. The
FLORIDA Special" West Coast),
operates between New York and
St. Petersburg and New York and
Tampa-Sarasota, with uper de
luxe coaches to all central Florida
dllu W0SI SOdoL ISoOAS9
This is a far step in the career
of this famous aristocrat of winter
trains, which has seen many
changes in railroading and the ter
ritory it serves since it made its
initial run on January 9, 1888.
In the old days It carried Henry
M. Flagler, Chauncey I. Depew,
John D. Rockefeller, ST., and many
another celebrity to their winter
vacations when Florida was just
beginning to win fame as a winter
resort. Miami was scarcely
thought of in those early days, for
it was not until the spring of 1896
that Henry M. Flagler, discoverer
of Florida's East Coast, laid out
the town site of the city at an In
dian trading post and hrought his
railway to the new town.
But st. Augustine We already
a favored resort. Flagler, capti-
waited by its Spanish h e a g e,
made the greatest plans for it and
engaged Thomas Hastings to de-
sign the Ponce de Leon Hotel.
That celebrated architect was an
admirer of the classic style. He
despised skyscrapers as architec-
tural atrocities to the very end
and designed the Ponce de Leon
in beautiful Spanish-Moorish forms
reminiscent of the Alhambra; it
remains this day as the finest ex-
ample of this type of architecture
in the United States. Flagler had
given a start to Palm Beach short
ly before he founded Miami.
Follows the Footsteps of Flagler |
and Plant
The Florida Special" follows,
the footsteps of Flagler and Henry
B. Plant. To Miami and other East
Coast points the Florida Special
Cast Coast )journeys over t. e
Florida East Coast railroad built
by Flagler, who spent so million
dollars to make his Florida dream
come true. To Tampa, ST.. Peters
burg, Sarasota, and other resorts
on the West Coast of Florida, the
''Florids Special (West Coast),
passes over the system built by
Henry B. Plant, which the Allan
tic Coast Line acquired in 1902.
Plant, who worked very hard I'M
til he was 80 years old, reached
Florida long before Flagler. He
went there first in 1853 with a
sick wife. He later spent some
time in Europe, but eventually re-
,urned to the Land of Flowers"
which had captured his magma
ton. In 1879 and 1880 he bought
the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad, !
and the Charleston and Savannah.
With these to start with he be-
gan building along the South At
lantic seaboard a transportation
system that twenty wears later in