Transportation
In 1878 and 1881, Henry Flagler visited Florida. His wife, Mary, had contracted chronic bronchitis and doctors recommended a trip to Florida; sadly, she died shortly after arriving in St. Augustine. While in Florida, Flagler noticed the lack of good transportation. The small railroads had only open passenger cars which broke down frequently, and oftentimes required a boat service in between lines or at the end of the trip. Upon his departure from Florida, Flagler told a passenger, “I didn't like it” and that he found the city of Jacksonville “awful.”
"Mr. Flagler made his first trip to Florida in 1878, not in 1881 or '83. He came back in '81, and it was because his wife, Mary, was not well. Because the terrible, terrible winters in Cleveland . . . she was doing very, very poorly, he brought her here in 1878, they went to Orange Park, he didn't like it, came back in '81. They went to Jacksonville, he liked it even less." |
"The way you got to St. Augustine from Jacksonville was: you got to Jacksonville, and then you went down the St. Johns River to Palatka, and then from Palatka to St. Augustine there was a rickety railroad, and when I say rickety railroad, it basically was with open seats. It was almost like a trolley with a surrey on top where people got wet. It was a horrible steam engine. It always broke down - so that when he [Henry Flagler] saw this...he said 'No. If I'm going to build a tourism spot for the wealthy, you cannot subject these spoiled, wealthy people to such 'torture' and that's when he begins acquiring individual piecemeal railway lines to try to connect them to basically have a seamless connection."
- Dr. Jesus Mendez, Professor of History at Barry University