Key West
Moved over to Key West old town harbour last Thursday, and here thru Monday. Tristan joined us Friday night, and left early Monday to get a flight back to his work location near Atlanta. Key West has many stories, but probably the most important to its development is the Florida East Coast Railway, which extended the railway 150 miles from Miami to Key West, in the early 1900's, over what they called the Overseas Railway. Difficult building conditions and numerous bridges required almost 7 years of construction time. At first one's thoughts are how could the promoter have thought that could be economic. But in the context of the time, with the planned opening of the Panama Canal, the connections to the closest US port, and the importance of a growing tourist class to bring to the related luxury hotels (a la CP and the grand hotels across Canada), the undertaking becomes comprehensible. Key West was the largest city in Florida in the late 1800's, and the wea