Florida
East Coast Railway - (en)
The Florida East Coast Railway (AAR reporting marks FEC) is a Class II
railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida; in the past, it has been
a Class I railroad. The FEC is renowned as the railroad that built the
first railroad bridges to Key West that have since been rebuilt into road
bridges for vehicle traffic, now known as the Overseas Highway. It was
originally known as the Florida Coast and Gulf Railway and then the
Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway; for more information
and other former railroads merged into the line, see the family tree below.
History
"Drumhead" logos such as these often adorned the ends of
observation cars on the FEC.
[edit] Henry Flagler: Developing Florida's east coast
The Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) was developed by Henry Morrison
Flagler, a United States tycoon, real estate promoter, railroad developer
and Rockefeller partner in Standard Oil. Originally based in Cleveland,
Ohio and formed as Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler in 1867, in 1877,
Standard Oil moved its headquarters to New York City, and Flagler and his
family moved there as well. He was joined by Henry H. Rogers, another
leader of Standard Oil who also became involved in the development of
America's railroads, including those on nearby Staten Island, the Union
Pacific, and later in West Virginia, where he eventually built the
remarkable Virginian Railway to transport coal to Hampton Roads, Virginia.
Promotional excursions such as the Florida Special helped make the state
the tourist "Mecca" it is today.Henry Flagler's non-Standard Oil
interests went in a different direction, however, when in 1878, on the
advice of his physician, Flagler traveled to Jacksonville, Florida for the
winter with his first wife, Mary, who was quite ill. Two years after she
died in 1881, he married one of Mary's former caregivers. After their
wedding, the couple traveled to St. Augustine, Florida. Flagler found the
city charming, but the hotel facilities and transportation systems
inadequate. He recognized Florida's potential to attract out-of-state
visitors. Though Flagler remained on the Board of Directors of Standard
Oil, he gave up his day-to-day involvement in the corporation in order to
pursue his interests in Florida.
When Flagler returned to Florida, in 1885 he began building a grand St.
Augustine hotel, the Ponce de León Hotel. Flagler realized that the key
to developing Florida was a solid transportation system and consequently
purchased the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax Railroad. He also
noticed that a major problem facing the existing Florida railway systems
was that each operated on different gauge systems, making interconnection
impossible. Shortly after purchasing the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and
Halifax Railroad, he converted the line to standard gauge.
The earliest predecessor of the FEC was the narrow-gauge St. John’s
Railway, incorporated in 1858, which constructed a now-abandoned line
between Tocoi and St. Augustine. In 1883, Henry M. Flagler, now retired
from Standard Oil, moved to St. Augustine and purchased several hotels.
The East Coast of Florida was relatively undeveloped at that time, and
Flagler found it difficult to obtain the construction materials he needed.
In 1885, Flagler purchased all assets of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine
& Halifax River Railway; as the railroad expanded southward, the
company was eventually re-named “Florida East Coast Railway Company –
Flagler System” on September 7, 1895.
The Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway served the
northeastern portion of the state and was the first property in the
Flagler Railroad system, which would eventually become the Florida East
Coast Railway Company. Before Flagler bought the organization, the
railroad stretched only between South Jacksonville and St. Augustine and
lacked a depot sufficient to accommodate travelers to his St. Augustine
resorts. Flagler built a modern depot facility as well as schools,
hospitals and churches, systematically revitalizing the largely abandoned
historic city.
Flagler next purchased three additional existing railroads: the St. John's
Railway, the St. Augustine and Palatka Railway, and the St. Johns and
Halifax River Railway so that he could provide extended rail service on
standard gauge tracks. Through the operation of these three railroads, by
spring 1889 Flagler's system offered service from Jacksonville to Daytona.
Continuing to develop hotel facilities to entice northern tourists to
visit Florida, Flagler bought and expanded the Ormond Hotel, located along
the railroad's route north of Daytona.
Beginning in 1892, when landowners south of Daytona petitioned him to
extend the railroad 80 miles south, Flagler began laying new railroad
tracks; no longer did he follow his traditional practice of purchasing
existing railroads and merging them into his growing rail system. Flagler
obtained a charter from the state of Florida authorizing him to build a
railroad along the Indian River to Miami and as the railroad progressed
southward, cities such as New Smyrna and Titusville began to develop along
the tracks.
The Florida East Coast Railway depot in Sebastian, Florida. The structure
was built in 1893.By 1894, Flagler's railroad system reached what is today
known as West Palm Beach. Flagler constructed the Royal Poinciana Hotel in
Palm Beach overlooking the Lake Worth Lagoon. He also built The Breakers
Hotel on the ocean side of Palm Beach, and Whitehall, his private 55 room,
60,000 square foot (5,600 m²) winter home. The development of these three
structures, coupled with railroad access to them, established Palm Beach
as a winter resort for the wealthy members of America's Gilded Age. Palm
Beach was to be the terminus of the Flagler railroad, but during 1894 and
1895, severe freezes hit all of Central Florida whereas the Miami area
remained unaffected, causing Flagler to rethink his original decision not
to move the railroad south of Palm Beach. It is said that Julia Tuttle,
one of two main landowners in the Miami area along with the Brickell
family, sent orange blossom to Flagler to prove him that Miami, unlike the
rest of the State, was unaffected by the frost. To further convince
Flagler to continue the railroad to Miami, both Julia Tuttle and William
Brickell offered land to the Florida East Coast Canal and Transportation
Company, and the Boston and Florida Atlantic Coast Land Company in
exchange for laying rail tracks.
On September 7, 1895, the name of Flagler's system was changed from the
Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railway Company to the
Florida East Coast Railway Company and by 1896, it reached Biscayne Bay at
present day downtown Miami, at the time a small settlement of less than 50
inhabitants. When the town incorporated in 1896, its citizens wanted to
honor the man responsible for the city's development by naming it, "Flagler."
He declined the honor, persuading them to keep the city's old Indian name,
"Miami." The area was actually previously known as "Fort
Dallas" after the Fort built there in the 1830's during the second
Seminole War. To further develop the area surrounding the Miami railroad
station, Flagler dredged a channel, built streets, instituted the first
water and power systems, and financed the town's first newspaper, the
Metropolis. Flagler was a great visionary and he can be credited for the
development of the entire east coast of Florida. Yet he lacked vision on
at least one issue: he felt that Miami would never be more than a fishing
village.
As of 1905, Flagler started what everybody considered a folly: the
extension of the FEC to Key West which would later be known as "The
Overseas Railway," at the time considered the eighth wonder of the
world and surely the most daring infrastructure ever built exclusively
with private funds. The first train arrived in Key West on January 22,
1912.
A 1913 print advertisement extols the many advantages of traveling on the
Florida East Coast Railway, the "New Route to the Panama Canal."
Constructing the Florida East Coast Railway
The railroad south of West Palm Beach was constructed in phases by the FEC
and the predecessor systems. Flagler began his railroad building in 1892.
Under Florida’s generous land-grant laws passed in 1893, 8,000 acres (32
km²) could be claimed from the state for every mile (1.6 km) built.
Flagler would eventually claim a total in excess of two million acres
(8,000 km²) for building the FEC, and land development and trading would
become one of his most profitable endeavours.
Before it became the FEC, the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Indian
River was constructing a line southwards from Daytona Beach in 1894. Fort
Pierce was reached on January 29, and West Palm Beach on March 22. Further
extension southwards did not begin until June of 1895, when a favorable
deal was signed with Miami-area business interests. Fort Lauderdale was
reached on March 3 of the following year. By April, the construction
reached Biscayne Bay, the largest and most accessible harbor on
Florida’s east coast. To further develop the area surrounding the Miami
railroad station, Flagler dredged a channel, built streets, instituted the
first water and power systems, and financed Miami’s first newspaper, the
Metropolis. Flagler announced in 1905 that the FEC would be extended 128
miles to Key West over the ocean. The "Overseas Extension" was
completed in 1912, a mere 16 months prior to Flagler’s death, at a cost
of $27 million and lives of hundreds of workmen.
Key West Extension: Eighth
Wonder of the World
Never one to rest on his laurels, Flagler next sought perhaps his greatest
challenge: the extension of the Florida East Coast Railway to Key West, a
city of almost 20,000 inhabitants located 128 miles beyond the end of the
Florida peninsula. Flagler became particularly interested in linking Key
West to the mainland after the United States announced in 1905 the
construction of the Panama Canal. Key West, the United States' closest
deep-water port to the Canal, could not only take advantage of Cuban and
Latin America trade, but the opening of the Canal would allow significant
trade possibilities with the west.
The construction of the Overseas Railroad required many engineering
innovations as well as vast amounts of labor and monetary resources. At
one time during construction, four thousand men were employed. During the
seven year construction, five hurricanes threatened to halt the project.
Despite the hardships, the final link of the Florida East Coast Railway
was completed in 1912. In that year, a proud Henry Flagler rode the first
train into Key West, marking the completion of the railroad's overseas
connection to Key West and the linkage by railway of the entire east coast
of Florida.
FEC Through the Years
The stock market crash of 1929 was particularly harsh on the FEC. The
railroad was in receivership by September 1931, a short 18 years after
Flagler’s death. Bus service began to be substituted for trains on the
branches in 1932, and the Key West Extension was abandoned after the Labor
Day Hurricane of 1935. However, streamliners terminating in Miami
nevertheless plied the rails between 1939 and 1968, including such famous
trains as “The Champion”, jointly operated with the Atlantic Coast
Line. The FEC had barely emerged from bankruptcy in 1961 when a labor
contract negotiation turned sour, leading to a prolonged work stoppage
beginning January 23, 1963. Although freight trains were operated with
non-Union and supervisory crews, passenger runs were not reinstated until
later. During the stoppage, Miami’s wooden-construction downtown
passenger terminal was demolished on November 12, 1963. The passenger runs
reinstated in 1965 between Jacksonville and Little River (NE 79th St.),
with a single diesel and two streamlined passenger cars, would continue
six days a week until it was finally discontinued on July 31, 1968.
Flagler's heritage
In 1913, Flagler fell down a flight of stairs at Whitehall. He never
recovered from the fall and died in West Palm Beach of his injuries on May
20, 1913, at 84 years of age. He was buried in St. Augustine alongside his
daughter, Jenny Louise and first wife, Mary Harkness. Only his son Harry
survived of the three children by his first marriage in 1853 to Mary
Harkness. There is a monument to him in Biscayne Bay, and a college
(Flagler) named after him in St. Augustine, Florida. The Florida East
Coast Railway was the product of Flagler's resources and imagination.
Flagler's construction of hotels at points along the railroad and his
development of the agricultural industry through the Model Land Company
established tourism and agriculture as Florida's major industries.
Hundreds of workers on the Florida East Coast Railway's Overseas Extension
were lost when a hurricane swept the through the Keys and battered Miami
on October 18, 1906.Nearly a century later, the effects of Henry Flagler's
incredible accomplishments can still clearly be seen throughout Florida.
Perhaps even more amazingly, as Florida is now well-known as a retirement
state of preference for many Americans, Flagler accomplished these feats
after retiring from his first career. Flagler had already founded and
developed the vast empire of Standard Oil with partners John D.
Rockefeller, Samuel Andrews, and Henry H. Rogers before becoming
interested in Florida. Linking the entire east coast of Florida, a state
that at the time was largely an uninhabited frontier, demanded a great
deal of foresight and perseverance.
The Florida Overseas Railroad, also known as the Key West Extension of the
Florida East Coast Railway, was heavily damaged and partially destroyed in
the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. The Florida East Coast Railway was
financially unable to rebuild the destroyed sections, so the roadbed and
remaining bridges were sold to the State of Florida, which built the
Overseas Highway to Key West, using much of the remaining railway
infrastructure. A rebuilt Overseas Highway (U.S. Route 1) following
Flagler's dream, continues to provide a highway link to Key West, ending
at the southernmost point in the continental United States.
FEC in modern times
The Florida East Coast Railway operates from its relocated headquarters in
Jacksonville after selling the original General Office Building in St.
Augustine to Flagler College in late 2006. Its trains run over nearly the
same route developed by Flagler (the Moultrie Cutoff was built in 1925 to
shorten the distance south of St. Augustine). Today the company only
provides freight service — passenger service was discontinued in 1968
after labor unrest that resulted in violence. However, there has been some
speculation that the southern end of the FEC line may be used for a
commuter rail service to complement the existing Tri-Rail line and that
Amtrak may be allowed to use FEC lines for a more direct route between
Jacksonville and Miami. The FEC currently transports Tropicana Products'
"Juice Train" cars to and from the company's processing facility
in eastern Florida.
For many years the company was controlled by Edward Ball, who headed the
trusts set up under the will of his brother-in-law Alfred I. du Pont and
associated business interests. His "Pork Chop Gang" was also a
powerful force in Florida state politics. Later, after 36 years with the
railroad Raymond Wyckoff took the helm on May 30, 1984, the same year that
Florida East Coast Industries was made the holding company for the Railway
and the Commercial Realty and Development Company, a structure which
persists to this day. As of March, 2005 Robert Anestis stepped down as
C.E.O. of Florida East Coast Industries after a 4 year stint, allowing
Adolfo Henriquez to assume that position, with John McPherson, a long-time
railroad man, continuing as President of the Railway itself.
