The New Student's Reference Work/Florida Keys

Florida Keys are a group or chain of small islands stretching south from the southern coast of the Florida peninsula. There are thousands of them, many of them of coral formation and most of them submerged by high tide. The longest of them is Key Largo, and the southernmost of any importance is Key West: Here is the city of Key West, the site of a naval station, with a population of 21,174, and a place of considerable commercial importance. It has lines of steamers connecting with the chief cities of the Atlantic coast. Its chief industry is the manufacture of cigars, and it also has a large trade in fish, fruit, tobacco, vegetables and sponges.

A vast and unique enterprise, the greatest engineering feat of recent years, is the railroad, which has been constructed from the mainland to Key West, a distance of 130 miles, bridging long stretches of open sea, with an equal distance built up on submerged swamps and shallows. The open water is bridged by miles of concrete viaducts, the shallows built up with solid embankments of rock, and all made to withstand the assaults of the sea, driven by tropical storms.

This undertaking was the work of the late Henry M. Flagler, who had previously built a road along the Atlantic seaboard from Jacksonville to Miami, with its series of magnificent hotels. His ultimate plan was to connect Key West with Havana by ferries which would carry solid trains, thus extending rail passenger and freight passage from New York into the island of Cuba.

BUILDING PIER OF CONCRETE WITH STEEL REËNFORCEMENT

BUILDING CONCRETE ARCHES. SHOWING FRAMEWORK

SECTION OF FLORIDA KEYS RAILROAD. BUILT ACROSS OPEN SEA