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Show Key West Linked up by Rail One of the greatest engineering feats of this age of engineering wonders has just been completed, namely, the build-irg build-irg of the Key West or "overseas" extension ex-tension of the Florida East Coast railroad. rail-road. The appearance of the first train at Key West was made the occasion of a great celebration in which many notables no-tables took part. This work a the realization re-alization of a fond dream of President Flagler's. He wanted to shorten the jump from the United States to Cuba and he also looked forward to the completion com-pletion of the Panama canal, which will greatly increase traffic in all this part of the world. The idea was to use the string of Florida keys or islet.-" as stepping step-ping stones to carry the steel highway over the water to Key West. Many said it was an impossibility and soma still predict that a great hurrican emay undo the work. But for over six years an army of several thousand men have kept at work and now the work is complete. com-plete. It represents the most costly piece of railroad construction in the world, as it averages $150,000 a mile or oyer $23,000,000 in all. The line is 156 miles long and nearly half of this is over opn water. The road makes use of 42 keys, while the line is carried over the water part on long viaducts of reinforced rein-forced concrete, resting either on solid rock or heavy piling. The.track is, 30 feetabovehighwatersothat.it is believed be-lieved the highest waves will never reach never it. And still it will be an exciting trip during a hard storm, as the sensation to the passengers is that of traveling directly over the ocean. The longest of the viaducts U seven miles and it has 186 archus. This stretch alone used up2S5,000 barrels of cement 1 and about 300,000 cubic yards of sand and crushed stone, while nearly .1,000, -'' 000 feet of lumber whs required to buifu the forms for the arches. This; extension makes Key West ' feel more as if it were' a part of the Unft'oil ft'Cates" |