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Authors: Les Standiford
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devastated personal life, however. Hardly had he embarked upon a career in hotel-building than he realized that transporting customers to these emporia of delight was as important a link in the process as moving crude oil to his refineries had been so many years before.
In this case, for Flagler, there was something of a carryover from his former life. All that experience in railroading was about to be put to use in an entirely different context, as he tried to make sense of one of the most chaotic rail systems in the United States.
There had been almost no railroad construction in Florida since the end of the Civil War. The aftermath of the conflict had sent most of the operators into bankruptcy and the ensuing litigation had tied up much of the state-owned right-of-way in court battles. The lines that did exist had been built without regulation and with no regard for consistency of track. Where one line ended and another began, the gauge and type of track might vary wildly. To continue on, engines and cars would have to have their wheels refitted and their axles resized. The alternative was to unload passengers and cargo from one train and reload them on another.
It was a situation that a man who had worked with peerless organizer John D. Rockefeller could scarcely comprehend. But with construction under way on the Ponce de Leon, Flagler realized he was in dire need of better transport service over the forty-mile route from Jacksonville, which was then the southern terminus of decent rail service in the state of Florida. As matters stood, to get from Jacksonville to St. Augustine required a leisurely cruise down the broad St. Johns River, then the boarding of a narrow-gauge railroad for a few remaining miles’ passage eastward to the ultimate destination.
When talks with existing line owners proved fruitless, Flagler did what anyone with his resources might: he ponied up half a million dollars and bought the railroad. As the new owner of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax River Line, his first decision was to build a bridge across the St. Johns.
The moment that the company’s engineers heard of Flagler’s plans, they came forward quickly, announcing that no one had ever sunk railroad support piers in ninety feet of water, the depth they would have to cross. Flagler pondered this information for a moment, then turned back to the engineers. “Cannot you build that pier in ninety feet of water, then?”
After a brief huddle, the engineers had decided. “We can,” they told Flagler.
“Then build it,” Flagler replied.
The result constituted railroad history, but it was only the beginning of Flagler’s involvement with railroading in Florida. Shortly afterward, he bought another Jacksonville short line and extended it directly eastward to Jacksonville Beach and its environs, where he constructed a series of coal and lumber docks that made Jacksonville a major port.
With that behind him, Flagler turned his interests southward again, extending his line to Ormond Beach, where he bought a modest inn and renovated it, renaming it the Ormond Beach Hotel, adding a golf course and other amenities so pleasing that Rockefeller built his winter home across the street.
By this time Flagler was convinced he was onto something in the providing of uninterrupted train service for tourists visiting Florida. He extended the line to Daytona Beach, laying the foundation for that town, whose twenty miles of hard-packed, snowy sand beaches would make it one of the leading resort destinations in the nation.
Residents of the lands farther south needed no convincing of the value of Flagler’s efforts. He was offered free land for his right-of-way, and less than a year after the railroad had reached Daytona, it had leapfrogged another eighty miles south across the palmetto-dotted scrublands to Rockledge, almost halfway down the state from Jacksonville, across the Indian River from Cape Canaveral.
Meanwhile, a competitor of
In this case, for Flagler, there was something of a carryover from his former life. All that experience in railroading was about to be put to use in an entirely different context, as he tried to make sense of one of the most chaotic rail systems in the United States.
There had been almost no railroad construction in Florida since the end of the Civil War. The aftermath of the conflict had sent most of the operators into bankruptcy and the ensuing litigation had tied up much of the state-owned right-of-way in court battles. The lines that did exist had been built without regulation and with no regard for consistency of track. Where one line ended and another began, the gauge and type of track might vary wildly. To continue on, engines and cars would have to have their wheels refitted and their axles resized. The alternative was to unload passengers and cargo from one train and reload them on another.
It was a situation that a man who had worked with peerless organizer John D. Rockefeller could scarcely comprehend. But with construction under way on the Ponce de Leon, Flagler realized he was in dire need of better transport service over the forty-mile route from Jacksonville, which was then the southern terminus of decent rail service in the state of Florida. As matters stood, to get from Jacksonville to St. Augustine required a leisurely cruise down the broad St. Johns River, then the boarding of a narrow-gauge railroad for a few remaining miles’ passage eastward to the ultimate destination.
When talks with existing line owners proved fruitless, Flagler did what anyone with his resources might: he ponied up half a million dollars and bought the railroad. As the new owner of the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax River Line, his first decision was to build a bridge across the St. Johns.
The moment that the company’s engineers heard of Flagler’s plans, they came forward quickly, announcing that no one had ever sunk railroad support piers in ninety feet of water, the depth they would have to cross. Flagler pondered this information for a moment, then turned back to the engineers. “Cannot you build that pier in ninety feet of water, then?”
After a brief huddle, the engineers had decided. “We can,” they told Flagler.
“Then build it,” Flagler replied.
The result constituted railroad history, but it was only the beginning of Flagler’s involvement with railroading in Florida. Shortly afterward, he bought another Jacksonville short line and extended it directly eastward to Jacksonville Beach and its environs, where he constructed a series of coal and lumber docks that made Jacksonville a major port.
With that behind him, Flagler turned his interests southward again, extending his line to Ormond Beach, where he bought a modest inn and renovated it, renaming it the Ormond Beach Hotel, adding a golf course and other amenities so pleasing that Rockefeller built his winter home across the street.
By this time Flagler was convinced he was onto something in the providing of uninterrupted train service for tourists visiting Florida. He extended the line to Daytona Beach, laying the foundation for that town, whose twenty miles of hard-packed, snowy sand beaches would make it one of the leading resort destinations in the nation.
Residents of the lands farther south needed no convincing of the value of Flagler’s efforts. He was offered free land for his right-of-way, and less than a year after the railroad had reached Daytona, it had leapfrogged another eighty miles south across the palmetto-dotted scrublands to Rockledge, almost halfway down the state from Jacksonville, across the Indian River from Cape Canaveral.
Meanwhile, a competitor of
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