USA > Florida > Florida, 1513-1913, past and future; four hundred years of wars and peace and industrial development > Part 17
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When this shall have been accomplished Florida will have effected one of the greatest and most valuable feats of conservation possible within her borders, one that will inure to the lasting benefit of all her people and to the permanent prosperity of the state, and she will have performed a duty that she owes to the nation and to the world.
CHAPTER XIII FLORIDA'S RAILROADS
R AILROADS everywhere have been most efficient developers of the sections through which they have passed. Nowhere has this fact been more marked than in Florida. The lines of rails through the state have been the arteries of agricultural and civic growth, and even today each road is the center line of a strip of varying width wherein industrial activity is marked. The increase of railroad mileage has always been followed by a correspond- ing increase of population.
Up to the year 1884, 1,045 miles of rails had been laid in Florida. The population at that time was approximately three hundred and twenty thousand, or one mile for each 306 inhabitants, with a density of population of about six persons to each square mile of area. With a density of population in 1913 of fifteen, there is one mile of railroad in operation for each 146 permanent residents.
A great impulse was given railroad construction in Florida under the administration of Gov. William W. Bloxham, from 1880 to 1884. The Legislature of 1881 granted a number of charters and encouraged railroad extension by large grants of land. The most important of these was that given to the Pensacola & Atlantic Railroad, from Pensacola to Chattahoochee, which was accompanied by a land grant of 20,000 acres of land for each mile of road construction. Many of these new roads were short lines, local in importance and extent, and subsequently they were merged into other and longer lines and became links in the roads which today cross the state from east to west and from north to south, or form important parts of inter- state trunk lines extending far beyond the boundaries of the state.
These smaller roads, many of them having important rail or water connections at terminal points, traversed the fruit and vegetable grow- ing sections, and their construction was followed by a quick and large development of horticultural exports. More than nine hundred thousand boxes of oranges left the state for northern and outside
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markets in 1885, and this increasing industry was fostered by im- proved means of transportation.
EAST COAST DEVELOPMENT
No better illustration of sectional development can be found than that of the Atlantic side of the state by the building of the Florida East Coast Railway system from Jacksonville to Key West. The inception of this line was the purchase of a narrow gauge road that connected South Jacksonville with St. Augustine. It was acquired in 1885 by Henry M. Flagler, who employed it largely as a freight line over which to transport from Jacksonville material for the con- struction of the Ponce de Leon Hotel, which was opened in 1888. In that year he secured control by purchase of three short lines, which gave connections with Palatka and Daytona. These were changed to standard gauge and the steel bridge was built across the St. Johns river at Jacksonville, in 1890, which gave a permanent terminus in the railroad metropolis of the state.
The possibilities of the lower east coast appealed to Mr. Flagler and he planned the extension of the system southward. The con- struction of the new rail line was begun in 1892, south from Dayton. It was completed to Rockledge in 1893, to West Palm Beach in 1894 and to Miami in 1896, 366 miles south of Jacksonville, and for several years this was the southern terminus of the road.
The idea of extending the road to some deep-water port at the extreme southern end of the state was a daring one. Cape Sable for a time was considered as a possibility, but the engineers reported unfa- vorably. Then the line across the Florida Keys was studied carefully, with a terminal point many miles north of Key West, and finally the Island City was seriously contemplated. "Can it be done?" was the question Mr. Flagler asked of the engineers. "It can, but it will cost millions of dollars." "Go to Key West," was the order, and the survey was made and construction was begun south from Homestead, twenty- eight miles south of Miami, to which the road had been extended in 1904. Actual construction was undertaken in April, 1905. Mr. Flag- ler's train was the first to enter Key West over the completed line front Jacksonville, on January 22, 1912.
REMARKABLE CONSTRUCTION WORK
The construction of the 128 miles from Homestead to Key West was in some respects the most daring undertaking in the history of
JUNGLE ACROSS THE FLORIDA KEYS THROUGH WHICH THE FLORIDA EAST COAST RAILROAD WAS BUILT
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railroad building. Many eminent engineers predicted failure, even declaring it impossible. But the seeming impossibilities were con- quered, although many millions of money and many lives were the cost. Engineering problems were encountered for whose solution there were no precedents. The work of months and the expenditure of millions of dollars were wiped out by the fierce October storms of 1906, 1909 and 1910.
The line of track was carried across the swamps of The Everglades before the mainland of Florida was left behind. It was built through the jungles of the keys and the waters between were spanned by miles of concrete arches. The longest of these is Knight's Key bridge, seven miles from end to end. Long Key bridge is two and three-quarters miles in length, and the "open truss" work of the Bahia Honda bridge lacks but little of a full mile.
The cost of this extension, including the line from Miami to Key West, 156 miles, had been $20,000,000 when the road was opened to its southern terminus. A large amount has been added since that time in replacing temporary work with permanent construction. When the concrete wharves at Key West, where the tracks of the road run alongside ocean-going ships lying in forty feet of water, shall be completed, the entire cost will probably be nothing short of thirty million dollars.
Already the announcement has been made of the awarding of contracts for the building of two immense ferry boats, which will transfer solid trains of freight across the ninety miles of the Florida straits to Havana. These ferries will be used also for the transfer of passenger cars and trains, and the distance to Cuba's most important gateway is to be covered in six hours. The cost of installing these ferries will add at least two million dollars to what has already been expended in the extension and equipment of the road to Key West.
Mr. Flagler lived to see his dream come true of a road across the seas to the Island City, the southernmost city in the United States, the gateway to Cuba, the West Indies and Caribbean ports, and the port in this country nearest of all to Colon, the entry to the Panama canal. Mr. Flagler died in May, 1913, in his eighty-fourth year. At the time of his death his investments in Florida had been at least fifty million dollars, and through all time to come he will be known as the greatest single developer of the Peninsular State.
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OTHER FLORIDA RAILROADS
Several great interstate trunk lines enter Florida, which have much greater mileage outside the state than within its limits. The principal of these are the Atlantic Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line, the Louisville & Nashville and the Georgia Southern & Florida Railway. The Florida East Coast Railway is the most important road wholly within the state, having a mileage on June 30, 1912, the date of the last published report of the Florida Railroad Com- mission, of 753 miles, to which nearly one hundred miles of new line have been added since that date.
Quoting further from this report-the total railroad mileage in Florida was 5,423.24, of which 3,596.27 were main line trackage; 783 miles of yard track and sidings, and 878 miles of branches and spur tracks.
The mileage of railroads in Florida and having terminals in the state was 14,337 miles. The expenditure within the state for new lines, extensions, additions and betterments, from July 1, 1907, to June 30, 1912-five years-was more than sixty million dollars.
The total value of the capital stock, at par, of railroads wholly within the state or having terminals in Florida, was $209,967,300; that of railroads wholly within the state was $28,057,600.
For the fiscal year 1912, the total revenue from the operation of railroads in Florida, was $22,653,847, of which $13,109,432 was from freight traffic, and $6,828,054 from passenger service.
A PERIOD OF EXPANSION
Largely increased activity in railroad extension, betterment and equipment in Florida has come within the years beginning with 1907. This has been due in no small measure to the development of Florida's resources of agriculture, phosphate mining, naval stores and timber, and perhaps even more in anticipation of the opening of the Panama canal. Immense sums have been expended in the construction of terminal facilities at seaport cities, particularly at Jacksonville, Pen- sacola and Tampa. Transportation and traffic managers were among the first to realize the fact that Florida's ports, both on the Atlantic and the gulf, were nearer to Colon than those of any other state, and that in this respect they possessed an enormous advantage in the future development of commercial relations with South America. That the completion of the canal is to revolutionize traffic relations
KNIGHT'S KEY BRIDGE, SEVEN MILES ACROSS DEEP WATERS
---
A MILE OF " THROUGH TRUSS " CONSTRUCTION AT BAHIA HONDA
-
LONG KEY BRIDGE-NEARLY THREE MILES LONG
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between the United States and the southern hemisphere they foresaw and laid their plans accordingly.
PECULIAR TRAFFIC CONDITIONS
Railroad traffic in Florida is governed by some conditions that are unique and peculiar to this section. One of these is the fact that the rail lines and, to some extent, the water routes are called upon to handle immense passenger business in the winters, which is lack- ing in the warmer months of the year. As Florida's winter climate has come to be appreciated by the rest of the world, the cold of the northern winters has sent increasing thousands hurrying southward to enjoy the balmy breezes or to regain broken health in favoring sur- roundings. To every section of the state they come for a fortnight, a month or six months. Thus the winter season increases Florida's population by a quarter of a million visitors, and the railroads are called upon to transport these hundreds of thousands into the state and back to their northern homes, and practically ninety-five per cent of this traffic comes between December first and the middle of the fol- lowing .April.
These same months are the harvest time of Florida's most important crops, her oranges and vegetables. The orange crop for the year 1912-13 amounted to more than twenty-seven thousand carloads, allowing 300 boxes to each car. Florida's vegetables for the same year would have filled 19,000 cars, and these products are ready for the northern markets just when the tourist travel is heaviest. This is a condition that affeets a majority of the rail lines in the state, for a majority of the roads have a large traffic in fruits and vegetables, and tourists go wherever the railroads can carry them. These peculiar conditions often tax the equipment capacity particularly of the Florida East Coast Railway, of the Sea- board Air Line and of the Atlantic Coast Line.
FLORIDA'S RAILROAD COMMISSION
Florida's railroad interests are supervised by a Railway Commis- sion, which consists of three commissioners and a secretary. The duties of these commissioners are those usually intrusted to similar bodies in other states, and they are vested with executive power in making orders relative to rates and other matters in which the desires of the people and the rights of the transportation companies, express Vol. I-22
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companies, telephone and telegraph companies and other managers of public utilities, sometimes come into conflict. The commission is backed with the authority of the state to enforce its orders and the railroad and other corporations have the right of appeal to the courts from the decisions of the commission.
To her transportation companies operating within her bounda- ries Florida owes her prosperity more than to any other agency or cause, unless it be to the resources that have been given her by Nature, and whose development has brought growing strength and impor- tance to these corporations. The Peninsular State offers an enticing and promising field for the building and operation of railroads and when her resources of agriculture, of timber and of mining shall have reached even a half of their possible development, the railroad mileage will have been increased to at least ten times what is now being operated.
CHAPTER XIV FLORIDA PHOSPHATES
A LTHOUGH Florida is not ranked high as a mineral- producing section, its mines are the source of more than one-half of the phosphate rocks and fullers' carth used in the world's commerce and manufac- tures. It leads also as the productive source of the world's naval stores, turpentine and rosin. The for- eign and domestic consumption of these commodities brings into the state millions of dollars each year, and the aggregate is being increased yearly as these resources are developed by larger investments of capi- tal and by a continually enlarging demand.
The world's most extensive deposits of phosphate rock have been discovered in the United States. The North Carolina mines were first operated in 1867. These were found paralleling the Atlantic coast line and not far distant from it. The phosphates of Florida lie principally in a narrow curved belt reaching from west of the Apalachicola river southeast and south to the Gulf of Mexico in Manatee and Lee counties, a distance of three hundred and fifty miles. The pebble phosphates occur in the southern part of this area. The principal deposits of hard rock phosphate are found in the central part of the area, in Columbia, Alachua, Marion and Citrus counties. Suwanee and Hernando counties also have extensive operations. The existence of these deposits was known for some years before the pro- duct became important as an article of trade, in 1888.
The central Tennessee mines were discovered and their value was recognized almost twenty years later, and at a still more recent date, deposits were uncovered in an area included in southeastern Idaho, southwestern Wyoming and northeastern Utah. These deposits are believed to be the most extensive in the world. The quality of the product, the extent of the included area and the content value in the essential chemical ingredients have not yet been determined, and the development has not been carried to a large output.
Deposits of phosphate rock are known in Arkansas, southern
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Georgia, North Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi, but these have not been developed commercially because of the low chemical values and also because, as far as they have yet been discovered, these deposits are not sufficiently extensive to warrant the investment of large capital.
PHOSPHATES IN AGRICULTURE
The uses of phosphate rock in industrial development is best stated in a recent article by. Prof. S. E. Collison, of the Florida Agri- cultural Experiment Station. He wrote: "Phosphorus is the ele- ment most quickly exhausted from common cultivated soils of the United States. It has been estimated that the soils of the middle states, where cereal grains are largely produced, have in a period of fifty-five years, lost one-third of their content of phosphorus through its removal in these crops. To keep up the present crop production resort must be had to applications of phosphoric acid in the form of commercial fertilizers, such as bone, slag and rock."
Of these three bases, rock is the most important and the easiest available, and it is from this fact that the phosphate rocks gain their large value.
VARIETIES OF FLORIDA'S PHOSPHATES
The phosphates of Florida, which because of their chemical analy- sis and their small percentages of mineral impurities, are considered the best in the world, occur in four principal forms. They are known as hard rock phosphate, soft phosphate, river pebble phosphate and land pebble phosphate. The pebble phosphates differ but little, the distinction being their occurrence in various locations indicated by their respective titles, either in the beds of streams or on higher lands. No soft phosphate has been produced in Florida for a number of years, therefore, the general classification is into two divisions, hard rock and pebble phosphates.
GEOLOGICAL OCCURRENCE
From the viewpoint of the geologist the occurrence of phosphates in Florida presents a number of problems that are yet to be decided by scientific investigation. It is known that these minerals are found in the formations of several geological periods and that the deposits have been subjected since their formation to varying conditions. Phos-
PHOSPHATE STORAGE AND SHIPPING PLANT AT BOCA GRANDE
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phorus in solution in water may replace the carbonate of the lime- stone, forming calcium phosphate. This replacement process has been clearly an agent in the formation of rock phosphate. Shells have been found in which the original calcium carbonate has been changed to phosphate, proving the possibility of the formation of the mineral in this way. Phosphoric acid in sufficient quantities to form large deposits of phosphate may have been supplied from any of sev- eral sources.
The occurrence of hard rock phosphate is in connection with a mixture of widely diverse materials. The formation is largely of light gray sands in which occur also clays, phosphate rocks, flint boulders, limestone, vertebrate and invertebrate fossils. Of this conglomera- tion merchantable phosphate rock forms from ten to twenty per cent. Its occurrence in the mass is irregular, sometimes near the sur- face, sometimes so far beneath it as to prevent economical mining.
Phosphate rock in Florida lies near the surface and the process of mining it does not necessitate deep underground operations. This is not intended to suggest that the rock may not be found in deposits far below the surface, but the deposits that have been developed are covered by an overburden of sand and clay usually from five to fifteen feet thick. This must be removed by dredge, steam shovel or hydrau- lic methods before the rock may be economically taken from the deposit.
The phosphate-bearing stratum is exceedingly variable in thick- ness. In the northern part of the phosphate area its occurrence is in layers usually thinner than further south. In Suwanee, Columbia, Alachua and northern Marion counties, it sometimes reaches a thick- ness of thirty to fifty feet. Further south, in Marion and Citrus counties, its maximum thickness is found, from sixty to seventy feet, and along the Withlacocchee river, a thickness of seventy-five feet has been shown by boring tests.
PEBBLE PHOSPHATE
Pebble phosphate differs from the rock variety in its occurrence as pebbles from the size of a generally spherical body half an inch in diameter to the size of a walnut. This variation makes necessary different methods of mining from those employed in handling rock phosphates. The pebble variety is found under an overburden of sand, clay or marl or a mixture with other materials, from four to ten feet thick, and the formation in which it is found varies in thick-
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ness from eight to twelve feet, sometimes as much as twenty feet. It is from ten to twenty-five percent of the formation in which it occurs.
The occurrence and peculiarities of pebble phosphate deposits indicate geological conditions during the formation of the beds where it is found, differing much from those attending the hard rock depos- its. There is evidence that the former were made under water or under conditions that induced marked stratification.
METHODS OF MINING
The methods of mining phosphates vary with differing local con- ditions. After the removal of the overburden, the layer of soil that covers the deposits, blasting is sometimes necessary to loosen the masses of hard rock phosphate, which are then handled by dredges or other means to the conveyances which carry them to the washers. Dredges are employed where the deposits are covered with water, and this usually accumulates in the pits as the excavations become deeper. Hydraulic mining methods are used largely in taking out pebble phosphates, streams of water under enormous pressure being directed against the deposits.
WASHING
The material as it comes from the mines contains large quantities of sand, clay and other undesirable detritus, which must be separated from the valuable phosphates, which as rock or pebble, are insoluble in water. Therefore, water is used in the process of separation. And washing is an essential part of the process by which the mineral is prepared for market. The washeries in some of the Florida phos- phate plants, are immense structures, resembling from a distance the great grain elevators in wheat-producing sections of the country. Large expense is necessary for their construction and equipment.
Not less important is the drying of the cleansed phosphates. This is essential, for unless the content of moisture is below a certain per- centage the product is unsalable or the price is discounted by large proportions.
MARKETABLE QUALITIES
The marketable value of phosphates, so far as it is not affected by trade conditions, depends upon two principal things. The first
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is the percentage of available tri-calcium phosphate or as it is known to the trade, the bone phosphate of lime, the element which in the acid chamber becomes the base in the formation of the phosphoric acid of commerce. The second is the low content of the impurities, iron and alumina. More than three percent of these impurities, are not acceptable in commercial phosphates, because in the acid chamber, the sulphuric acid reacts first upon the iron and alumina which reduces its efficiency in the reaction upon the tri-calcium com- pound by which the phosphoric acid is formed.
Hard rock phosphate is sold upon a guaranteed content of not less than sixty-eight percent of tri-calcium phosphate. A rebate from the agreed price may be demanded if the percentage falls below the required sixty-eight, and no premium is allowed if it goes above this figure. The variation is from this minimum as high as seventy-eight percent. The guaranteed percentage in pebble phosphate is sixty- eight to seventy.
FLORIDA'S PRODUCTION
The extent and value of the phosphate mining industry in Florida is indicated by the reports covering the operations of the year 1912, the latest that have been compiled by the State Geologist. These reports show an increase over the results of the previous year and conditions promise corresponding growth for many years to come. In tabular form the product of the United States, and Florida's share appear as follows:
Percent-
Location.
Product (Long Tons) .
age.
Value. $9,461,297
Florida
2,406,899
81.
Tennessee
423,331
14.2
1,640,476
South Carolina
131,490
4.4
524,760
All other sections
11,612
.4
49,241
United States
2,973,332 100. $11,675,774
From this statement it appears that Florida produced more than four-fifths of the phosphate output of the United States. The prod- uct of the world's phosphate mines for the same year was approx- imately three million, eight hundred thousand tons, of which the United States produced seventy-eight percent, and Florida sixty- three percent.
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The output of Florida's phosphate mining operations for 1912, were of hard rock, 536,379 long tons, and of pebble phosphate, 2,043,- 486 tons.
The average price of hard rock phosphate at the mines was re- ported to be about six dollars a ton; that for pebble phosphate, from two dollars and seventy-five cents to four dollars and fifty cents, according to the grade.
The consumption of Florida-produced phosphates is largely by foreign manufacturers, but the domestic use, both in Florida and elsewhere in the United States, shows decided increases from year to year. The shipments to foreign markets of hard rock in 1912 were 473,639 tons; of pebble phosphate, 682,232 tons. The ship- ments to points in the United States were, of hard rock, 15,425 tons and of pebble phosphate, 1,204,502 tons. Florida manufacturers con- sumed 10,499 tons of hard rock and 32,425 tons of pebble phosphate.
The entire product of Florida mines, from the beginning of their operation, in 1888, to the close of 1912, was nearly twenty-three and one-half million tons.
About forty companies and firms are engaged in the operation of phosphate mines in the state. They have many millions of capital invested in lands, machinery and railroads. The industry has added greatly to the wealth of the state and it is drawing additional capital from other sections to aid in its further development. It is believed to be still in its early infancy and the future holds promise of vastly greater returns than have yet been earned as the reward of enter- prise and energy.
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