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Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean | 
 enlarge | Author: Les Standiford
Publisher: Crown
Category: Book
List Price: $24.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  25 reviews
Sales Rank: 490444
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 0609607480
Dewey Decimal Number: 385.0975941
EAN: 9780609607480
ASIN: 0609607480
Publication Date: September 2002
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Amazon.com
In Last Train to Paradise novelist Les Standiford has written a lively, felicitous account of the building of the Florida East Coast Railway, which, for a little over two decades, connected mainland Florida with Key West. Henry Morrison Flagler, John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil partner and, in many eyes, the true genius behind that company, embarked on the project in 1905 when he was 74 years old. The railroad, which crossed more than 150 miles of open sea, was an engineering feat nearly equal in scale and difficulty to the digging of the Panama Canal. Standiford's narrative skillfully blends tales of construction perils (not the least of which were escadrilles of mosquitoes) with brief, illuminating travelogues and natural histories, pocket descriptions of life in early 20th-century Florida, and a truly gripping description of an epic standoff between Mother Nature, in the form of a monstrous hurricane, and a stalled, 160-ton steam locomotive. With nary a single missed note, this fascinating tale is popular history at its best. --H. O'Billovich
Product Description
Last Train to Paradise is acclaimed novelist Les Standiford’s fast-paced and gripping true account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the Key West Railroad—one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed in one fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores.
In 1904, the brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler, partner to John D. Rockefeller and the true mastermind behind Standard Oil, concocted the dream of a railway connecting the island of Key West to the Florida mainland, crossing a staggering 153 miles of open ocean—an engineering challenge beyond even that of the Panama Canal.
“The financiers considered the project and said, Unthinkable. The engineers pondered the problems and from all came one verdict, Impossible. . . .” But build it they did, and the railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for twenty-two years. Once dismissed as “Flagler’s Folly,” it was heralded as “the Eighth Wonder of the World”—until a will even greater than Flagler’s rose up in opposition. In 1935, a hurricane of exceptional force, which would be dubbed “the Storm of the Century,” swept through the tiny islands, killing some 700 residents and workmen and washing away all but one sixty-foot section of track, on which a 320,000-pound railroad engine stood and “gripped its rails as if the gravity of Jupiter were pressing upon it.” Standiford brings the full force and fury of this storm to terrifying life.
In spinning his saga of the railroad’s construction, Standiford immerses us in the treacherous world of the thousands of workers who beat their way through infested swamps, lived in fragile tent cities on barges anchored in the midst of daunting stretches of ocean, and suffered from a remarkable succession of three ominous hurricanes that killed many and washed away vast stretches of track. Steadfast through every setback, Flagler inspired a loyalty in his workers so strong that even after a hurricane dislodged one of the railroad’s massive pilings, casting doubt over the viability of the entire project, his engineers refused to be beaten. The question was no longer “Could it be done?” but “Can we make it to Key West on time?” to allow Flagler to ride the rails of his dream.
Last Train to Paradise celebrates this crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition, a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature’s wrath.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 20 more reviews...
 Last Train to Paradise July 19, 2008
Outstanding book--extremely well-written and very interesting. It's an enjoyable book even for readers not living in Florida or not familiar with Henry Flagler.
 A Wonderful Tribute to the Man and His Legacy May 27, 2008
I read this book after touring Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL. You cannot go anywhere in St. Augustine without hearing and seeing Henry Flagler's legacy. I really enjoyed the book - I could barely put it down. I highly recommend it for anyone interested in railroad history, and feel it is a "must read" for anyone who's been to the beautiful city of St. Augustine and gotten a taste of Henry Flagler's visionary spirit.
If you read the book without having visited the Florida Keys or St. Augustine, I strongly recommend that you do so soon!
If You Love All Things Florida... May 21, 2008
Florida has a long and fascinating history, often overlooked by new arrivals to our fair state, whose attentions seem to focus more on theme parks and the lack of frosty weather than what happened here yesterday or the day before. Les Standiford, whose books are always well written and enjoyable, has provided us with a glimpse of old Florida that is well worth the reader's time and attention, in "Last Train to Paradise".
The book is an account of Henry Flagler's love for and work in developing Florida, with a special eye toward the building of the Key West Railroad. Flagler, you will recall, was partner with the crusty "spare-a-dime" plutocrat John D. Rockefeller in Standard Oil. Upon his semi-retirement, Flagler took up as his hobby railroading; not model railroading, but full-size, fill-the-miles railroading.
Many cities along the Atlantic Coast of Florida were founded or revitalized by Flagler's enterprises; for, wherever his railroads went, exotic grand hotels sprang up to which the well-heeled and the curious swiftly flocked. (The First Lady, Mrs. Benjamin Harrison, traveled to St Augustine for the grand opening of the Ponce de Leon Hotel). Indeed, the St. Augustine of today owes more to Henry Flagler for its exotic ambiance as it does to the earliest Spanish settlers. So too, down the coast--from Ormond Beach to Palm Beach--his Florida East Coast Railway and glamorous hotel enterprise sprang, with such speed, vitality and élan that Flagler has been called "the man who built Florida."
Standiford gives a great overview of Flagler and his love for the Sunshine State, and then goes on to tell the compelling story of the building of the Key West Railroad, the only railroad in the world to travel most of its length over open water, instead of land. Originally conceived in a bout of competitive bravura with the Gulf Coast's Henry Plant--at the grand opening of Plant's Tampa Bay Hotel--the Key West Railroad was designed to take travelers in cosseted comfort all the way to the southernmost tip of the United States. Standiford tells the tale of the grueling work that created this modern marvel and of its tragic demise during the horrific hurricane of 1935.
All who have traveled to Key West by automobile have benefited from Flagler's vision, since much of the highway was constructed directly upon what remained of the Key West Railroad's foundations. If you love all things Florida, you will not want to miss reading this book.
A must-read for anyone traveling to Key West! April 26, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
If you do one thing before visiting the Florida Keys and Key West, PLEASE make time to read this book! We flew to Miami recently and drove this amazing route all the way to Key West. I finished the book right before our return trip, so I couldn't stop talking about the feats of engineering and perilous conditions during the entire car ride! (I think the fam got a little bored with me...should've made them all read it, too!)
The only thing about reading this book while on vacation is that I frequently had to go back and re-read some paragraphs. It's very factual and requires a fair amount of concentration. Kind of hard to do with an umbrella drink in your hand, palm trees swaying overhead and the gorgeous ocean about 15 steps away. Sigh...
Henry Flagler's story is so amazing, I would like to visit all of the hotels he was responsible for constructing all down the Atlantic Coast. We live in such a fast-paced and technologically advanced age that it's hard to fathom the trials and tribulations these men had to endure while constructing the railroad to Key West. It's amazing they ever finished it. Bless the souls who lost their lives in this astounding endeavor.
A Key to Key West April 25, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Time and tides wait for no man, nor are they particularly cooperative. Les Standiford's excellent "Last Train to Paradise" illustrates this on scales large and small in this vivid and informative telling of Henry Flagler's building of the railroad from mainland Florida to Key West. Although the project has earned only a footnote in American history, this grand and sad achievement illuminates a great deal of what the "Gilded Age," the years between the end of the Civil War and the Depression, were about.
The lure and mystery of Key West, Manifest Destiny, pride, John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil, mosquitoes, hurricanes, oppressive heat, a 150-mile stretch of mostly open water, Ernest Hemingway, and a bit of oceanography and engineering are just some of the fascinating ingredients in this wonderful book. It should be required reading for anyone who contemplates driving US Highway One off the mainland south of Miami to the end of the road, where remnants of this tragic tale still remain.
Marsh Muirhead, author of "Key West Explained - a guide for the traveler."
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