Imagine being on an island that’s about 100 miles away from the mainland and the only way off was by boat. When you think about the cost of shipping all the supplies that you would need to live it racks up quite a bit. On the other hand, when you’re thinking about how much easier and cheaper it would be to have a railway instead of a boat. He had already built a railway from Jacksonville to Miami. Back then all of their goods had to be shipped in from Cuba because it was closer than the mainland was to them.
When Henry Flagler decided to build the overseas railroad all of the building supplies, people, water, and food needed to be shipped in. all of that shipping gets expensive after a while, which is why so many people said that it could not be done. For 23 years the railway was going strong, getting passengers and supplies to and from. To find out more information about the railway https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/09/irma-most-intense-hurricane-florida-keys-1935-history/
It all went south when a category 5 hurricane stuck the keys in 1935 washing away many miles of railway. About 250 people had died in that hurricane, and it was the worst the keys have seen. Hurricane Irma was very close behind the Labor Day hurricane in terms of damage and strength. Since Henry Flagler had died the company didn’t follow the same outlook as he did. The estimates for the damage were done and they found that it would cost way too much to repair the railway and it would be better to just abandon it. The remains of the railroad estimated to be about $640,000 in scrapped material. Which was not nearly as much as it was worth. to learn more about the materials that were shipped out on the rail way check out https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Windley-Key
#Labordayhurricane #Flaglerrailway
This exhibit at the old quarry made me think of the story we heard from the ranger at Bahia Honda. The ranger told us they use to dig out rock from more inland to build the railroad. Walking through the quarry linked and gave me the final piece of information as to where this was happening and was amazing to think about the work people did to build the railroad back then.
ReplyDeleteAlthough ACDC said it best, highway to hell is a great way of putting this story. I wrote a similar blog post a couple of days ago about the storm on Labor Day of 1935 and Hurricane Irma. What was crazy to me was how these men with little technology were able to go so far and accomplish the things they did.
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