If you live in Florida, you’re probably familiar with some of the oil tycoon Henry M. Flagler’s work. Back in the early 1900s, Florida was a popular winter destination for the upper crust, and some of Florida’s most extravagant works of architecture were commissioned by Flagler himself. Flagler College (Ponce de León Hotel) in St. Augustine, and Whitehall, the impressive mansion that is now the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, both serve as reminders of his influence, as do many monuments across the state. Even the abandoned Flagler Railroad seems to be a testament to both man’s ingenuity and arrogance. Was this Flagler folly the biggest architectural disaster in the state?
These treasured Flagler landmarks remain in good condition, but even Flagler wasn’t infallible. In 1905, the industrialist decided to extend the Florida East Coast Railway beyond Miami, all the way to Key West. The hope was for the Flagler Railroad to Key West to profit from this more than 100-mile extension by having the best available access to Cuba and the proposed Panama Canal.
As you can imagine, construction was difficult, dangerous, and very expensive. Three hurricanes threatened to derail the project, but Flagler pressed on. It was completed in 1912, and what had originally been referred to as “Flagler’s Folly” suddenly became “The Eighth Wonder of the World.” Flagler Railroad to Key West is still one of the most talked about bridges in the southeast.
In 1935, however, nature delivered a fatal blow when a Category 5 hurricane took out a large part of the middle section of the railroad and made it unusable. More than 400 workers on the rail were killed in the storm. No one wanted to cover the tremendous cost to repair it, so the land was sold to the state, which, soon afterward, began building the “Overseas Highway” over the salvageable portions of the structures along the rail that remained. The highway was rebuilt once more in the 1980s, and it now runs alongside some of the original railway ruins, which Florida has converted into fishing piers and walking paths called the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail.
~Guest columnist, Victoria W