Or so it seems, after reading about the two magnates.
Both made their money from good realty/land investments, corn, oil, etc.
Then turned around and built monumental houses, hotels, railroads...
Both men were married, Plant twice, Flagler thrice.
Henry Bradley Plant 
concentrated on the West/Golf regions and built several luxury hotels, the most famous one in Tampa,
NOW housing the University of Tampa and the Henry B Plant Museum.
concentrated on the West/Golf regions and built several luxury hotels, the most famous one in Tampa,
NOW housing the University of Tampa and the Henry B Plant Museum.
He basically built Port Tampa
a few miles away from shallow Tampa Bay, to enable deep ocean craft to moor with access to railroads for easier loading and unloading.
a few miles away from shallow Tampa Bay, to enable deep ocean craft to moor with access to railroads for easier loading and unloading. |
| St.Pete Forum(*) |
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| Hillsborough River(*) |
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| Mascot BOLT of the Lightening(*) |
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| 'Green Men' Fans at TB Lightening Game (*) |
Henry Morrison Flagler
pictured here ca 1882, |
| Alligator (*) |
He wanted to ride his own rail car to Key West and eventually did so.
His engineers used all available technical advances, but relied heavily on man power to dig, shift, built embankments where none existed on these flat little pieces of sandbanks rising a scant foot or so above the ocean, and lay the railroad.
Between him and Plant, the made Florida the tourist destination of the times, and it still is, hurricane season notwithstanding!
 |
| Mangrove swamp |
and through almost impenetrable mangrove swamps, besieged by mosquitoes, yellow fever outbreaks,
and several hurricanes which interrupted the progress.
_tracks.jpg) |
| Hurricane tracks over Florida |
 |
| New AND old (see left) bridge spans |
.
After the Labor Day 1935 hurricane, the worst recorded to strike the USA, most of Flagler's railroad to Key West was destroyed with heavy loss of workers' live and lives of inhabitants of the Keys.
 |
| US 1 |
So the RR sold the land for a pittance to the State of Florida which used many parts of it to build US 1.
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| Breakers, a historic hotel |
Flagler's hotels:
"The Breakers" and others still are iconic destinations for the luxury trade in Miami, San Augustine and elsewhere!
"The Breakers" and others still are iconic destinations for the luxury trade in Miami, San Augustine and elsewhere!
 |
| Royal Poinciana Hotel in West Palm Beach ca 1920 now extinct. |
and the Flagler College
in St. Augustine.
It's the former"Ponce De Leon" Flagler hotel.
Flagler County, Flagler beach in Florida and Flagler, Colorado (by request of his daughter who liked the area) are also named for him.
His former home, Whitehall, Palm Beach
,
is open to the public as the Henry Morrison Flagler Musem with his private railcar No. 91 preserved inside a Beaux Arts pavilion built to look like a 19th Century railway palace.
These two men had visions, followed through tenaciously, spending their own funds to achieve them and -
in effect - gained immortality through the results.
Those were the days of no taxes, little government regulations and emerging technical advances.
But above all, these were times when immense personal drive overcame adversities seldom encountered before.
That vaunted American Spirit alive and well:
We Can and Will Do It!
(*) Photos by artandhockey.
in St. Augustine. It's the former"Ponce De Leon" Flagler hotel.
Flagler County, Flagler beach in Florida and Flagler, Colorado (by request of his daughter who liked the area) are also named for him.
His former home, Whitehall, Palm Beach
.jpg)
, is open to the public as the Henry Morrison Flagler Musem with his private railcar No. 91 preserved inside a Beaux Arts pavilion built to look like a 19th Century railway palace.
These two men had visions, followed through tenaciously, spending their own funds to achieve them and -
in effect - gained immortality through the results.
Those were the days of no taxes, little government regulations and emerging technical advances.
But above all, these were times when immense personal drive overcame adversities seldom encountered before.
That vaunted American Spirit alive and well:
We Can and Will Do It!
(*) Photos by artandhockey.
2 comments:
All of this WAS possible during the memorialized (1873-1925) GILDED AGE, as the American Frontier (including the State of Florida below Jacksonville) was fully settled with the MONEY and VISION of entrepreneurs like
Flagler and Plant, despite determined obstruction and legal action by the US Political Class (i.e. Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressives) who looked beyond our Borders to extend the concept of "Manifest Destiny" beyond our borders, and drove domestic legislation to rein in US commercial activity and attack the ELITE CLASS of the time.
It is no secret that Henry Flager's primary objectivse in building the 130 mile ocean-rail line from Homestead to Key West (called the "eighth wonder of the world" in the early 20th century) were (i) to establish a deep-water port for ocean commerce to serve the Panama Canal (then, under-construction) and (ii) to promote tourist traffic to the Island of Cuba (a mere 100 miles from Key West).
Today, US Highway 1 which links Miami to Key West (3-4 hour drive on a 2-lane road built over the bed of Flagler's 1935 rail line) remains as a reminder to all of Flagler's "dream" (which many disengenuously called "folly") and the amazing feats of "can-do engineering" to get his rail line built.
Three cheers for great American entrepreneurs like Flagler and Plant!!!
Ah, yes, I did forget that the Panama Canal was under construction just then and Cuba was still a relished trading partner of the US.
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