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Florida's Great Ocean Railway Building the Key West Extension by Dan Gallagher
Floridas Great Ocean Railway Building the Key West Extension by Dan Gallagher
Hard cover w dust jacket
Copyright 2003
198 pages
Contents
About This Book vi
Acknowledgments viii
1The Plan 1
2Reshaping the Keys 17
3Vessels of the RE. C. 28
4The Workers 50
5Homestead to Snake Creek 65
6Windley's Island to Long Key 82
7Long Key and the Great Viaduct 97
8The Marathon Construction Complex 117
9Knight's Key to Little Duck Key 137
10Bahia Honda and the Lower Keys 147
11Stock Island and Key West 168
12The Plan Revisited 175
References 191
Index 195
BETWEEN 1905 AND 1916, the Florida East Coast Railway built a 128-mile extension from the mainland of Florida at Homestead south and west to Key West. The feat was remarkable in a number of ways. By the time it was completed, engineers had filled in more than twenty miles between the Florida Keys and built bridges over seventeen more miles of open water. They had moved nearly eighteen million cubic yards of sand, marl, and rock, using strong backs and clever machines of their own design. During this construction period, there were generally four thousand workers "down in the Keys" at any given time pitting their energy against a hostile environment. About 160 men died on the project, 120 of them in a single day.
Their story is told with pictures and graphics as much as with words. Nearly three hundred old photographs and figures help the reader visualize the scope of the project. These photographs have come from a number of collections, and most have never been published elsewhere.
It was a magic time for amateur photographers. By 1900, cameras were in the hands of the common person. They were simple to operate, fairly reliable, and often used by professional engineers as a hobby. For these reasons, there are a lot of photographs of the Key West Extension under construction. Some of these photos were taken to show or demonstrate techniques to other engineers, but most were taken for fun by these hobbyists. Consequently they are often of amateurish quality and not well framed or focused. Although a number of photos in this book are less than perfect, I've included them because of their uniqueness and their importance in explaining a process.
All pictures are of the actual item. There may be reflection from the lights in some photos. We try to take photos of any damage. If this is a railroad item, this material is obsolete and no longer in use by the railroad. Please email with questions. Publishers of Train Shed Cyclopedias and Stephans Railroad Directories. Large inventory of railroad books and magazines. Thank you for buying from us.
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