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

Description

The fast-paced and grippingtrue account of the extraordinary construction and spectacular demise of the KeyWest Railroad—one of the greatest engineering feats ever undertaken, destroyed inone fell swoop by the strongest storm ever to hit U.S. shores.

In 1904, the brilliantand driven entrepreneur Henry Flagler, partner to John D. Rockefeller, dreamed of a railway connecting the islandof Key West to the Florida mainland, crossing a staggering 153 miles of open ocean—anengineering challenge beyond even that of the Panama Canal. Many considered the project impossible, but build it they did. The railroad stoodas a magnificent achievement for more than twenty-two years, heralded as “the Eighth Wonder of the World,” until its total destruction in 1935’s deadly storm of the century.

In Last Train to Paradise, Standiford celebrates this crowning achievement of Gilded Age ambition, bringing to life a sweeping tale of thepowerful forces of human ingenuity colliding with the even greater forces of nature’swrath.