Last Train to Paradise (2003)
“Some sixteen miles of track already laid on Key Largo had been washed out by the hurricane of 1906 and had to be rebuilt. After that, Tavernier Creek, the channel between Key Largo and Plantation Key at MM 90, was spanned by a low-lying trestle about half a mile in length.
Plantation Key, referred to as “Long Island” by the original road builders, constituted another five-mile stretch of “web-footed” work for Meredith and his team: clearing the gnarly mangrove thickets and palmetto scrub; blast...ing in the shallow waters offshore for limestone fill to build up the roadbed; tamping, grading, and leveling; laying ties and rails; and filling the gaps with coarse riprap, followed every step of the way by the growling supply trains and the relentless clouds of mosquitoes that drank the blood of the workers as resolutely as the workers guzzled fresh water carted down in the huge cypress tanks.
After Plantation Key, and the building of another low-lying trestle to span Snake Creek, engineers had to contend with two tiny dots of land originally known as the Umbrella Keys.MoreLess
Plantation Key, referred to as “Long Island” by the original road builders, constituted another five-mile stretch of “web-footed” work for Meredith and his team: clearing the gnarly mangrove thickets and palmetto scrub; blast...ing in the shallow waters offshore for limestone fill to build up the roadbed; tamping, grading, and leveling; laying ties and rails; and filling the gaps with coarse riprap, followed every step of the way by the growling supply trains and the relentless clouds of mosquitoes that drank the blood of the workers as resolutely as the workers guzzled fresh water carted down in the huge cypress tanks.
After Plantation Key, and the building of another low-lying trestle to span Snake Creek, engineers had to contend with two tiny dots of land originally known as the Umbrella Keys.MoreLess
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