History
The dream of one man changed the isolation of the Florida Keys for all time. Henry Flagler was a native New Yorker and he was born in 1830. He only went to school up until the eighth grade. But later on, he went on to establish the Standard Oil Company with John D. Rockefeller - that was in 1870 and he became very wealthy. After that, in 1885, he purchased a shoreline railroad between Jacksonville and St. Augustine, and then he began expanding it toward Miami. Miami was at that time only a very small settlement, not the big metropolis that it is. Now, Flagler had a vision and the vision of his railroad went to Miami. But beyond Miami, he wanted to connect the mainland to the deep port of Key West. At this time, Key West was a booming city it had more than 10,000 residents and it had the highest concentration of wealth of any city in the country. Flagler might have also had in the back of his mind that if he could connect the railroad to Key West, then he could also connect the railroad to Cuba. His railroad extended to Homestead by 1904, and after that he began work on connecting the entire Florida Keys. By 1908, the railroad had connected Homestead to Marathon,. Marathon became a boomtown - ships brought their cargoes of Cuban pineapples and limes, and they were loaded on the railway cars and shipped North. The railroad turnaround from Marathon to Homestead was at the Knights Key Campground. It's just recently been demolished and a brand new resort is still being built right there. It took a whole lot of engineering to overcome that seven mile gap between Marathon and Bahia Honda. During the construction of this section of the railroad, construction work was hampered by devastating hurricanes both in 1909 and 1910. But on January 22, 1912, Henry Flagler, who was now the ripe old age of 82, finally rode his dream from Homestead to Key West. He jumped in the railroad car and went across 42 stretches of sea over 17 miles of concrete, viaducts, and concrete and steel bridges, over 20 miles of filled calls ways ultimately covering 128 miles from island to island, and it was the culmination of his grand vision. Henry Flagler entered Key West that day a hero. Henry Flagler died the following year, and probably never knew that his big dream his vision, his flight of fancy had changed the course of the Florida Keys forever. It was today January the 18th, 1912, that John J. Frawley of the Lubin Manufacturing Company was in Key West to film the arrival of the first train on Henry Flagler's Railroad, and also to get some footage of the other industries of the city. And that's what happened today in Key West history. Today, in Key West History is brought to you by 43 Keys Media. You can find this and other programs as an Alexa flash briefing. You can also find us on YouTube and anywhere you listen to your podcasts. You can also find out more about our glorious past and the Florida Keys and even what's going on right now by visiting http://43keys.com.