Strolling the old Niles Channel Bridge with Cheyenne one reflective evening this week I was forced to wonder how it was Flagler got to build his hugely intrusive railroad in the Keys' fragile ecology.
A hundred years ago there were far fewer people in the world, and until New town was built in the 1960s, with the advent of cheap air conditioning, Key West's population stayed steady around 12,000 souls from it's founding for the first 150 years of the city's existence. Big Pine Key I read had seven people living on it after World War Two, so that the arrival of the rails and subsequently the connection by uninterrupted road did nothing to attract more people.
For my own tastes, life in the keys only became a long term proposition when two factors coincided in my life. One was that I got older and more settled, which makes me able to live in this minimalist small village- minimalist by US standards, not the standards of Mali or Uttar Pradesh. The other was the creation of cheap, easy, and functional (high speed) Internet service which connects life down here with life Out There.
Otherwise I think life might restricted and constrained much in the manner of a land crab in a sandy hole. On the whole I think I might have applauded Flagler's technological intrusion into the laid back life of the early 20th century.
Strolling the old Niles Channel Bridge with Cheyenne one reflective evening this week I was forced to wonder how it was Flagler got to build his hugely intrusive railroad in the Keys' fragile ecology.
A hundred years ago there were far fewer people in the world, and until New town was built in the 1960s, with the advent of cheap air conditioning, Key West's population stayed steady around 12,000 souls from it's founding for the first 150 years of the city's existence. Big Pine Key I read had seven people living on it after World War Two, so that the arrival of the rails and subsequently the connection by uninterrupted road did nothing to attract more people.
For my own tastes, life in the keys only became a long term proposition when two factors coincided in my life. One was that I got older and more settled, which makes me able to live in this minimalist small village- minimalist by US standards, not the standards of Mali or Uttar Pradesh. The other was the creation of cheap, easy, and functional (high speed) Internet service which connects life down here with life Out There. 
Otherwise I think life might restricted and constrained much in the manner of a land crab in a sandy hole. On the whole I think I might have applauded Flagler's technological intrusion into the laid back life of the early 20th century.
4 comments:
Not that you need it, as you seem to be well up on your Keys history, but this post reminded me of a book I read that I thought you might also enjoy. "Last Train to Paradise" (Les Standiford) covers Flagler's Floridian railroad enterprise, and although it's rather sensationalist at points, I found it edifying as well.
I'll second Amanda's comment.
As one of the wealthiest men in the world, Flagler was intent on leaving his mark in an age when men believed their mastery over nature was absolute.
The Overseas Railroad was a private venture - the force of will of one man who lived long enough to ride its rails - once.
A commercially folly, the railroad was sold to the State for less than 10 cents on the dollar three decades later.
This age no longer exists in the US - one has to look to Asia for empire builders.
As for population - I'll disagree. KW population peaked during the cigarmaking era - if I recall correctly, over 30,000 people called Old Town home at that time. Only in recent years have we seen a decline.
I read Standiford's book quite a few years ago and I enjoyed it.
From the history I have read Key West's population at the end of the 19th century at the height of cigar making was just under 19,000.
Now that Chuck has conceived a passion for all things Asian I'm sure those of us that are left behind toiling in the dowdy fields of the industrialized past seem rather quaint. But we will soldier on as best we can.
A good reference for "turn of the century" rough population figures are the Sanborn maps (used in determining fire insurance rates). This one (CLICK) from 1912 shows a population of 22,000 in Key West. Others from the era are comparable...
And our current numbers (INCLUDING New Town) are just a few thousand higher.....
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