The appeal of the Keys as an exotic destination had only been bolstered by their newfound accessibility, so much so that Franklin Roosevelt had thought it a worthy expenditure of WPA funds to complete a highway link between Grassy Key and the Matecumbes, thereby making it even easier for Americans to find a part of paradise for themselves. What eff

While Flagler’s Royal Palm Hotel was still under construction and the rest of the town-to-be was little more than dreams sketched out on paper, the arrival of the railroad changed everything. Within three months the city had been incorporated as Miami (Flagler had to gently urge the new town council to choose the original Native American name for t

One of the last of the gargantuan tasks involved in the completion of the route was the building of a bridge across the Bahia Honda Channel, connecting Bahia Honda, at MM 37, and the Spanish Harbor Keys. Though the distance was not nearly so great as some of the other spans that had been crossed—a little more than a mile, including approaches—the w

Flagler realized he was in dire need of better transport service over the forty-mile route from Jacksonville, which was then the southern terminus of decent rail service in the state of Florida. As matters stood, to get from Jacksonville to St. Augustine required a leisurely cruise down the broad St. Johns River, then the boarding of a narrow-gauge

In all, Coe would be responsible for fifteen major bridges on the Extension, as well as twelve miles of permanent trestlework. But the relocation of the displaced pier and the completion of the bridge at Bahia Honda meant that the last of the great challenges had been met and that what had once been the purest of fancies was about to materialize at

The principal cargo of the ships proved to be pineapples, most of them brought up from Cuba during the six- to eight-week season. Thirty-five hundred carloads of the fruit passed through Key West each year, and unemployed workers enjoyed a bonanza each “Pineapple Day” when a new shipment arrived.

Even if the practical issues involved in linking the island to the mainland by rail were daunting, the benefits to be gained by actually doing so seemed clear-cut. Flagler would become a dominant presence in what was then a major commercial center.

Three weeks later the hotel on Biscayne Bay opened, five stories tall and almost seven hundred feet long, capped by an awe-inspiring lookout platform and surrounded…

Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

Goaded by the outspoken Plant’s vow to “outdo” him, Flagler considered what he might play as a trump card. In a letter written to the Miami Herald many years later, Jefferson Browne, a Key West resident and onetime president of the Florida Senate, recalls being taken aside by Henry Flagler during the grand opening of the Tampa Bay Hotel. During tha