What do you think?
Rate this book
Florida's Great Ocean Railway: Building the Key West Extension
The building of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway extension over water to Key West from 1905 to 1916 was s triumph of engineering and logistics. The Keys were remote and with little means of communication. The massive amounts of materials had to be moved with steam power. This book tells the story of the planners and their plan and its execution. It has 250 old photos, most of which have never been published before.
208 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2003
About the author
Dan Gallagher
5 booksAfter seventeen years as a college professor, Dan Gallagher came to the Florida Keys in 1988 to become a professional boat captain, environmental guide, editor, and writer. The history of the Keys, particularly the Florida East Coast Railway, quickly became his main interest and the subject of his book Florida's Great Ocean Railway: Building the Key West Extension. He also wrote Pigeon Key and the Seven-Mile Bridge and Marathon: Heart of the Key West Extension, as well as several chapters of Florida Keys Environmental Story, for which he served as editor-in-chief. He also edited The Bridges Stand Tall and Islamorada and More, publications of the Pigeon Key Foundation. He has collected more than a thousand old photographs of the early Keys and the Key West Extension. Dan and his wife, Rita Irwin, live on Grassy Key.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 19, 2018
I visited the Customs House in Key West and wanted to buy a book to support the Art & Historical Society, which runs the museum. I talked with the manager (hi Nancy!), explaining that I was an engineer and interested in the Florida East Coast Railway and its Overseas Extension. She recommended this book over the others. It was a perfect pick.
This is a work of technical, historical nonfiction and, as such, is not light reading. It delves into minutiae about construction and engineering methods. The author has divided the extension into seven sections, dedicating a chapter to each. He provides deeply researched and detailed explanations, drawings, maps, and historic photography to explain things such as how the concrete arch spandrels on the viaducts were constructed, why particular bridge structures were chosen over others, how chalk marl was moved and dredged to form the fill sections on land, and why different types of cement and reinforcing steel were used in the concrete.
The author also explains how the extension was essentially built twice, which I found fascinating. Even though the extension opened in 1912, it was constructed relatively hastily with tradeoffs made on permanence to favor speed of construction. This got trains running into Key West as soon as possible so that they could start making money. However, work continued for another four years through 1916 to reinforce and improve what was built the first time. This project was certainly no half-assed effort by Flagler and his engineers. They were all-in. No expense was spared. And no expense had to be spared, thanks to Flagler’s fortune from petrochemicals.
One chapter is dedicated to the vessels. It becomes apparent that the project was as much a shipbuilding project as a railroad: floating concrete mixers, cranes, living quarters, and so forth. Also in this chapter is a full list of the names of the launches, which number over 80; while perhaps of interest to only the most hardcore maritime enthusiast, this is but one example of the degree of research and dedication by the author.
Another chapter describes the workers. Men of various nationalities and races came from all over the country to help build the extension. I particularly enjoyed reading about the engineers. The author paints a picture of an engineering triumph that has been referred to as the "eighth wonder of the world", a project that was executed relatively flawlessly thanks to detailed planning and flexibly to change the plan when dictated by site conditions. Even though the project was described by the public in derisive terms such as "Flagler's Folly", the engineers should be proud of what was accomplished in an age before mechanized construction equipment became commonplace, and the fact that their structures are still standing over 100 years later despite receiving a constant battering from the sea and salt air. Today's engineers could learn something.
They were also proud of what they built: as the author points out, one wonders why so much time was spent on the graceful curves and details of the bridges, when nobody on the train would see them. Fortunately, today, we reap the benefits of their aesthetic sense and pride when we admire the structures from parallel roads.
Criticisms are few and minor:
- Some of the drawings have been scanned at such a low resolution that finer details are illegible; one of which, unfortunately, is the dimensioned drawing of the spandrel arches. I am not sure if this is the author's fault or if it was an error by the publisher.
- While the author provides detailed maps of small areas, there is no detailed map of the entire extension as a whole. I therefore found it difficult to put some of the small maps and bridges in context.
- Some of the terminology may be unfamiliar to those not versed in engineering and construction; for example, the text uses stationing notation to reference waypoints, which is a method of baseline distance referencing used in surveying.
- The text could stand a round of copy editing from both a professional editor and an engineer. While there are no glaring grammatical errors, some information is repeated, while in other places it is needlessly spread across disparate chapters.
This book will be of particular interest to civil engineers and railroad enthusiasts alike. As someone who is both of these, I found the details about construction and engineering methods fascinating. Others may find them tedious. But if you have driven to Key West and wondered about all the abandoned bridges and what it took to build them, and you have an inquisitive and curious mind, give this book a try. You will learn, for example, how it took four years to construct the structures along the "seven mile bridge" that you traverse in just 10 minutes today. The book has opened my eyes and encouraged me to look for historical sites and traces of the railroad on my next trip to the Keys and to make some drawings and models of the structures.
By the way, I googled the author and discovered that he died in April 2012, which is just a few months after the 100 year anniversary of the opening of the extension. How’s that for coincidence!
This is a work of technical, historical nonfiction and, as such, is not light reading. It delves into minutiae about construction and engineering methods. The author has divided the extension into seven sections, dedicating a chapter to each. He provides deeply researched and detailed explanations, drawings, maps, and historic photography to explain things such as how the concrete arch spandrels on the viaducts were constructed, why particular bridge structures were chosen over others, how chalk marl was moved and dredged to form the fill sections on land, and why different types of cement and reinforcing steel were used in the concrete.
The author also explains how the extension was essentially built twice, which I found fascinating. Even though the extension opened in 1912, it was constructed relatively hastily with tradeoffs made on permanence to favor speed of construction. This got trains running into Key West as soon as possible so that they could start making money. However, work continued for another four years through 1916 to reinforce and improve what was built the first time. This project was certainly no half-assed effort by Flagler and his engineers. They were all-in. No expense was spared. And no expense had to be spared, thanks to Flagler’s fortune from petrochemicals.
One chapter is dedicated to the vessels. It becomes apparent that the project was as much a shipbuilding project as a railroad: floating concrete mixers, cranes, living quarters, and so forth. Also in this chapter is a full list of the names of the launches, which number over 80; while perhaps of interest to only the most hardcore maritime enthusiast, this is but one example of the degree of research and dedication by the author.
Another chapter describes the workers. Men of various nationalities and races came from all over the country to help build the extension. I particularly enjoyed reading about the engineers. The author paints a picture of an engineering triumph that has been referred to as the "eighth wonder of the world", a project that was executed relatively flawlessly thanks to detailed planning and flexibly to change the plan when dictated by site conditions. Even though the project was described by the public in derisive terms such as "Flagler's Folly", the engineers should be proud of what was accomplished in an age before mechanized construction equipment became commonplace, and the fact that their structures are still standing over 100 years later despite receiving a constant battering from the sea and salt air. Today's engineers could learn something.
They were also proud of what they built: as the author points out, one wonders why so much time was spent on the graceful curves and details of the bridges, when nobody on the train would see them. Fortunately, today, we reap the benefits of their aesthetic sense and pride when we admire the structures from parallel roads.
Criticisms are few and minor:
- Some of the drawings have been scanned at such a low resolution that finer details are illegible; one of which, unfortunately, is the dimensioned drawing of the spandrel arches. I am not sure if this is the author's fault or if it was an error by the publisher.
- While the author provides detailed maps of small areas, there is no detailed map of the entire extension as a whole. I therefore found it difficult to put some of the small maps and bridges in context.
- Some of the terminology may be unfamiliar to those not versed in engineering and construction; for example, the text uses stationing notation to reference waypoints, which is a method of baseline distance referencing used in surveying.
- The text could stand a round of copy editing from both a professional editor and an engineer. While there are no glaring grammatical errors, some information is repeated, while in other places it is needlessly spread across disparate chapters.
This book will be of particular interest to civil engineers and railroad enthusiasts alike. As someone who is both of these, I found the details about construction and engineering methods fascinating. Others may find them tedious. But if you have driven to Key West and wondered about all the abandoned bridges and what it took to build them, and you have an inquisitive and curious mind, give this book a try. You will learn, for example, how it took four years to construct the structures along the "seven mile bridge" that you traverse in just 10 minutes today. The book has opened my eyes and encouraged me to look for historical sites and traces of the railroad on my next trip to the Keys and to make some drawings and models of the structures.
By the way, I googled the author and discovered that he died in April 2012, which is just a few months after the 100 year anniversary of the opening of the extension. How’s that for coincidence!
May 25, 2026
Dan Gallagher published in an amazing book. This is it. Truly.
The memory of the Key West Extension is fading, but the effort of Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railway to Key West was a stunning engineering triumph. Spending an estimated $50 million dollars of his own capital in 1907 (he was one of the wealthiest men on the planet at the time - think Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Warren Buffett today), the line was put into full service in just six years. In today's dollars, that would be an estimated $10-40 Billion. Improvements continued for years after, too.
This book covers everything from design, building, the employees/constructors, the massive fleet of boats, construction, and much errata of such a project, key by key, north to south, east to west, all in a surprisingly compact 198 pages. The photos are interesting, with detailed captions. the drawings are incredibly informative.
If you are a railfan, a Conch (a resident of the keys), an industrial researcher, or just a historian, this book should have no problem holding your interest from cover-to-cover.
Highly recommended.
The memory of the Key West Extension is fading, but the effort of Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railway to Key West was a stunning engineering triumph. Spending an estimated $50 million dollars of his own capital in 1907 (he was one of the wealthiest men on the planet at the time - think Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Warren Buffett today), the line was put into full service in just six years. In today's dollars, that would be an estimated $10-40 Billion. Improvements continued for years after, too.
This book covers everything from design, building, the employees/constructors, the massive fleet of boats, construction, and much errata of such a project, key by key, north to south, east to west, all in a surprisingly compact 198 pages. The photos are interesting, with detailed captions. the drawings are incredibly informative.
If you are a railfan, a Conch (a resident of the keys), an industrial researcher, or just a historian, this book should have no problem holding your interest from cover-to-cover.
Highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews