Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean

O'Billovich. 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. --H. With nary a single missed note, this fascinating tale is popular history at its best. 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 desc

Good Read for history of Florida and especially the Keys. Just came back from 6 weeks in Florida and while in Key West saw the Henry Flagler exhibit at the museum there and wanted to learn more about him. This book is an interesting history of Florida and especially the Keys. We have been to the memorial for the Hurricane Victims of 1935 so this told me the complete story. Read this is you want to find out more about the beginnings of Florida and the snowbirds!. Entertaining and Educational at the same time I read Last Train to Paradise because I was interested in learning more about the author and his writing. I not only discovered a very readable book by a talented writer, I learned a tremendous amount about Henry Flagler and his railroad to Key West. Most entertaining and educational. Les Standiford won me over in his first chapter where he does a remarkable job of conveying the intensity, the panic, and the devastation of a hurricane. He returns to this scene in his conclusion. In between there is the story of a man who persisted against great odds and I am left wondering what propels men like Flagler. Little known historical event Alan R. Hecko If you like historical non-fiction, this is a great read. It's amazing the kinds of projects that men took on in the early 1900's. For Henry Flagler this was an enormous project that ended in ultimate failure. I gave this book 5 stars because the story was fascinating and the book beautifully written.

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. 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. In 1904, the brilliant and driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler, partner to John D. 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. “The financiers considered the project and said, Unthinkable. 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 “grip