Flagler by the Sea Flagler Beach Florida Reviews

In 1912 Henry Flagler arrived aboard the first train into Primal West, marker the completion of the Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway's Over-Ocean Railroad to Fundamental West. With the completion of the Over-Body of water Railroad the entire east declension of Florida, from Jacksonville to Key Westward, was linked past a single railroad system. The FEC was the product of Flagler's resources and imagination. Flagler'south construction of hotels at points forth the railroad and his development of the agronomical industry through the Model Land Company established tourism and agriculture as Florida'south major industries, which remain so even now more than a century subsequently. In essence, Henry Flagler invented mod Florida.

Amazingly, Flagler accomplished these feats after retiring from his outset career and having reached an age equal to the average life expediency for an American male of the fourth dimension. Flagler had co-founded Standard Oil with partners John D. Rockefeller and Samuel Andrews, long earlier becoming interested in Florida. Standard Oil remained the largest and well-nigh assisting corporation in the world for more than a century.

When Flagler commencement visited Florida in 1878, he recognized the state'due south potential for growth only noticed a lack of hotel facilities. Flagler returned to Florida and in 1885 with an middle toward developing the expanse around St. Augustine and began building a m hotel, the Hotel Ponce de Leon. Flagler realized that the key to developing Florida was a solid transportation system and consequently purchased the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax Railroad. He also noticed that a major trouble facing the existing Florida railway systems was that each operated on different gauge systems, making interconnection impossible. Before long after purchasing the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax Railroad, he converted the line to standard approximate.

The Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax Railroad served the northeastern portion of the country and was the commencement railroad in what would eventually become the Florida E Coast Railway Company. In add-on to improving the railroad, Flagler congenital schools, a hospital and churches in St. Augustine, systematically revitalizing the largely abased historic city.

Flagler soon purchased three more railroads: the St. John'southward Railway, the St. Augustine and Palatka Railway, and the St. Johns and Halifax Railroad and so that he could provide extended rail service on standard gauge tracks. With the addition of these iii railroads, by spring 1889 Flagler's system offered service from Jacksonville to Daytona. Standing to develop hotel facilities to entice northern tourists to visit Florida, Flagler bought and expanded the Hotel Ormond, located along the railroad's road north of Daytona.

Commencement in 1892, when landowners south of Daytona petitioned him to extend the railroad eighty miles south, Flagler began laying new railroad tracks; no longer did he follow his traditional exercise of purchasing existing railroads and merging them into his growing rail system. Flagler obtained a lease from the land of Florida authorizing him to build a railroad along the Indian River to Miami and as the railroad progressed south, cities such equally New Smyrna and Titusville began to develop along the tracks.

By 1894, Flagler's railroad organization reached what is today known every bit West Palm Beach. Flagler constructed the Hotel Regal Poinciana on the eastern shore of Lake Worth in what is at present known as Palm Beach. He as well built The Breakers Hotel on the sea side of Palm Beach, and Whitehall, his private 75-room, 100,000 square foot wintertime home. The building of the hotels, coupled with railroad access to them, established Palm Beach as a winter resort for the wealthy members of America'due south Gilt Age. The Hotel Imperial Poinciana before long became the world'due south largest resort.

Probably earlier he fifty-fifty extended his railroad to Daytona, Henry Flagler was seriously considering going all the mode to Primal West. However, he was content to look for the right opportunity, which came as a consequence of the severe freezes of 1894 and 1895, which affected the state as far south as Palm Embankment.  To further convince Flagler to continue the railroad to Fort Dallas, he was offered land from private landowners, the Florida East Coast Canal and Transportation Company, and the Boston and Florida Atlantic Coast Land Company in commutation for laying track to Fort Dallas and that was plenty to induce him to begin doing so immediately.

In September 1895, Flagler's arrangement was incorporated as the Florida East Coast Railway Visitor and past 1896, it reached Biscayne Bay, the largest and near attainable harbor on Florida's east declension. To further develop the area surrounding the Fort Dallas railroad station, Flagler dredged a aqueduct, built streets, instituted the first water and ability systems, and financed the town's outset paper, the Metropolis. When the town incorporated in 1896, its citizens wanted to laurels the man responsible for the urban center'southward development by naming it, "Flagler." He declined the honor, persuading them to use instead the native American name for the river running through the settlement, "Miama" or "Miami."

When the The states appear in 1905 its intention to build the Panama Canal, Flagler embarked on perhaps his greatest challenge: the extension of the Florida East Coast Railway to Central West, a metropolis of near xx,000 inhabitants located 128 miles beyond the cease of the Florida peninsula. A train depot in Key West, the United states of america' closest deepwater port to the Culvert, could non only accept advantage of Cuban and Latin America trade, but significant merchandise possibilities with the west via the new Canal.

The construction of the Over-Bounding main Railroad required many technology innovations besides as vast amounts of labor and monetary resources. The construction, employed up to iv thousand men were. During the seven years of construction, 5 hurricanes threatened to halt the project with three causing major damage. Despite the hardships, and the engineering challenges, the Over-Body of water Railroad, the final link of the Florida Eastward Declension Railway, was completed on Jan 22, 1912, merely weeks after Flagler'due south 82nd birthday.

Linking the entire e coast of Florida with a transportation organization and establishing tourism and agriculture equally the basis of the country'south economy, at the time was largely an uninhabited borderland, demanded a nifty bargain of foresight and perseverance. More than a century later, the mainstays of Florida's economy are notwithstanding agriculture and tourism and Flagler'due south incredible legacy as the inventor of modern Florida can all the same clearly be seen throughout Florida.

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Source: https://www.flaglermuseum.us/history/florida-east-coast-railway

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