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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: Three Rivers Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 52812
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.6
ISBN: 1400049474
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9781400049479
ASIN: 1400049474
Publication Date: August 5, 2003
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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 Labor Day hurricane of 1935. Brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler’s dream fulfilled, the Key West Railroad stood as a magnificent achievement for more than twenty-two years, heralded as “the Eighth Wonder of the World.” Standiford brings the full force and fury of 1935’s deadly “Storm of the Century” and its sweeping destruction of “the railroad that crossed an ocean” to terrifying life. Last Train to Paradise celebrates a crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition in a sweeping tale of the powerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature’s wrath.
“A dramatic story . . . and Les Standiford has a good deal of fun with it all.” —Washington Post Book World
“A rousing—a deeply sobering—story.” —Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed
“A fascinating and incredibly compelling account . . . I could not put it down.” —Donald Trump
“A definitive account of the engineering feat that became known as ‘Flagler’s Folly’. . . A rousing adventure."—Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 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."
Last Train to Paradise September 24, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is terrific. The history of Florida as it relates to a railroad going from Jacksonville, Florida, all the way to Key West is really fascinating.
 On track! November 9, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a good book if you love Florida history as much as I do. The first chapter is especially fine and very dramatic, with the old 447 chugging down the line in the middle of the 1935 Labor Day hurricane with 200 plus mph winds, a movie all by itself! Its bogs down a little in later chapters only because of its historical accuracy, ie. details about building the bridges across the open water, etc. My only other criticism is it lumps Flagler's personal life in one chapter and then you have to keep going back to see whats happening with Flagler personally (eg. his problems with Ida Shroud who went insane) while the railroad is being built. These are minor criticisms and over all the book is an assett to any historical library.
A captivating reminder of the forces of nature versus technology March 16, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Flagler's grandious railroad across the Florida Keys was in itself bold and way ahead of its time, but the tale of the contest with the immense forces of the hurricanes that destroyed it is of epic dimension (you can still see the ruins of the old bridges from the highway). A great story, very well told: impossible to put down, a real page turner.
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