Economy
Agricultural products such as winter vegetables and cattle could now be transported throughout the state and nationwide. Florida’s economy expanded rapidly.
Winter Vegetables"What the railroad does is, it opens up the winter vegetable industry." |
Cattle and Fish"And cattle farming also began at that time because you had a way to bring cows in and ship cows out." "The railroad rapidly lessened the amount of time it took perishable goods to travel to northern markets. Goods such as citrus and fresh fish could now be on dinner table up and down the east coast in a matter of days, not weeks." |
Tourism"It was the Florida East Coast Railway that almost totally developed tourism on the east coast of Florida." "These [the hotels] were very influential on the local economy because they brought tourists down." "In the last decades of the [19th] century, Florida attracted more healthy people than invalids as thousands of northerners came into the state simply for travel, rest, and recreation. Originally called 'strangers,' the travelers now were called 'visitors;' in the twentieth century they would be called 'tourists.'" |
"What grew up immediately when Flagler built the railroad was agriculture. People could plant farms with citrus trees and now have a way to transport the crops - oranges, grapefruits, and lemons - to markets, once they grew. Before, there was no practical way to do so."
- Mr. Les Standiford, Author of Last Train to Paradise; Noted Historian of the Florida East Coast Railway