Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 January 1908 — RAILROAD OYER OCEAN NOW RUNNING TRAINS [ARTICLE]

RAILROAD OYER OCEAN NOW RUNNING TRAINS

Henry M. Flagler Has Line to Key West Already Partly Completed. CONCRETE ARCHES ARE USED. Novel Engineering Peat Is Described as the Most Bemarkable is the World. The most remarkable railroad in the world, whirih Henry'M. Flagler is building on concrete arches through the shal,Jow waters of the ocean ’along the garland of palm groves that cover the keys south of Florida, is now In operation for a distance of miles to Knights Key, and regular trains are running over it. Through sleeping cars will be provided from .New York and, Chicago, and they ultimately will be carried across on a ferry from Key West ttf Havana, making the distance in six hours. The railway is more than half done, and, as the present terminus at Knight’s Key has all the facilities for handling the traffic, Mr. Flagler decided to place the completed portion in operation and have it earning the expense of maintenance, at least, while the remainder of the track is finished to Key West. Practically 80 per cent of all the construction work is done and everything will be ready for through trains to Havana by the opening of the tourist season next'winter. Knight’s Key,) tfafe present tennigus of the Flagler system, is 109 miles south of Miami, forty-seveu miles north of Key West and 115 miles north of Havana. The road between Miami and Knight’s Key is built twenty-eight miles upon the main land of Florida and eighty-one miles ncross and between forty-two keys. B’or nearly one-half of th£ distance the railway track over the water on concrete arches, whose foundations rest upon the bottom of the sea. - At the town of Homestead, twentyeight miles south of Miami, the track leaves the. continent of North America and starts upon its way over the ocean. Seventeen miles south of that point it reaches- Kpy Largo, the largest of the keys, which is. fifteen miles long, and from there jumps from key to key by "means of massiyit-ffiasonry and ambaukmentg of cement and coral rock. In crossing the deeper channels several drawbridges have been provided to permit of the passage of vessels. The intervening water_bet\veen the/forty-two keys varies in width from jai few hundred feet to two miles or more, and in depth from a few inches to thirty feet. The embankments are rip-rapped with rock to prevent washing, and are defended by piles and every other device thht the engineers could invent to protect the roadway from the attacks of the water, which Is sometimes stirred up into great violence by the force of the wind. The track is thirtyone feet above high water, so that the passengers in the railway trains may sit in the windows of Pullman cars In serenity and have an opportunity of seeing how the Atlantic Ocean looks In a gale.