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The extension of the Florida East Coast Railroad through the Florida Keys was a momentous event in our cultural, economic, and environmental history. Henry Flagler's railroad provided a slender thread that linked our island communities to each other, and beyond. The railroad also brought us engineering marvels, tall legends, and harrowing disasters. The blueprints are available online at the Monroe County Libraries website www.keyslibraries.org
No one remembers how, or when, a complete set of railroad blueprints found their way into the Monroe County Public Library vault. Geographers, historians, and railroad researchers have used the blueprints to further their understanding of the Keys during the early 1900s. They portray a silhouetted landscape, vastly changed from before, and ever since.
Monroe County Public Library's set of 30 Florida East Coast Railroad Right-of-Way survey blueprints were digitized by the University of Florida's Digital Library Center using a PhaseOne PowerPhase FX digital camera. The University of Florida and Florida Center for Library Automation have mounted these images on the World Map Collection website. We thank them for their generosity.
The blueprints were updated in 1935 to indicate damage caused by the Labor Day Hurricane. The maps are oriented with north toward the bottom of the page and east to west essentially left to right--upside-down from the expected view. Surveyors have mislabeled some bodies of water. The white patches over parts of the blueprints remain a mystery.
Comments or questions about the blueprints may be emailed to:
Anne Layton Rice Tom Hambright
Library Administrator Keys Historian
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