Flagler and his Railway

Flagler and his Railway

            In 1905 Henry Flagler started the work line for his extension of the Florida East Coast Railway to Key West, which is located 128 miles from the tip of Florida. This extension to Key West would allow for the United States to take advantage of the Cuban and Latin American trade, as well as the west coast with the creation of the Panama Canal. When Flagler first thought of his overseas railroad it required various engineering innovations and a large sum of laborers and money that needed to be put out in order to complete the railroad. 

            Originally, when the railroad was first being constructed he wanted to run the railroad from, Homestead, Florida, then travel southwest through the everglades to Cape Sable where it would continue on to Big Pine Key having crossed 25 miles of open water then going to Key West.  The main engineer for the railway, William J. Krome, then determined that it was more feasible to run the railroad south to Key Largo then follow the islands of the keys until Key West. 

At Windley Fossil Reef Geological State Park, we learned about the formation of the Key Largo limestone, fossilized coral, that was used for the stone that built the Florida East Coast Railroads, Overseas Railroad. The park was first purchased by Henry Flagler in 1908 for $852.80, Flagler picked this property because of the eighteen-foot elevation above sea level that the property had making it the perfect place for the quarry to be made to create the rock needed for the railroad. The rock from the quarry was used to raise the road beds in order to fil the areas where it approaches a bridge.  Flagler kept amazing records of all the work being done and through this it was estimated that about 17 million cubic yards of material were used to fill these areas, with most of it being moved by hand. 

After the railroad was built the rock was used to create polished slabs to decorated buildings or used for countertops, because people discovered how beautiful the keystone really was with all the coral markings in them.  

https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/windley-key-fossil-reef-geological-state-park

https://www.floridastateparks.org/learn/history-windley-key