The Key West Citizen Newspaper, April 23, 1926, Page 2

Over Sea Highway Will ‘Leap Florida Sand Bars = All The Way To Key West The © following interesting article about Key West’s great Over-Sea highway to the main- land, decompanied by more than half a newspaper page of illustra- tions, Appeared’ ina recent issue of the New York,American. It was written by Hamilton M. “Wright in a sincerely enthusiastic way, and is a wonderfully fine literary tcost for Key West and the keys. It will be read with appreciation by people of’ this community, since it comes un- solicited -from an unexpected sources and appegring in the great New. York newspapers, will be of inestimiable benefit to the region of the. Florida keys, and especial- ly Key West. The article fol- lows: . I have just been over a com- pleted. section of the most mar- velous* aiifdmobile road projected in the: brief histery of motors. Even Julius Caesar, stellar road builder of all time, never vision- ed so extraordinary a highway, and the Incas who skirted the An- dean ‘cliffs with marvelous in- genuity never attempted so stupendous a feat. For the new -road will leap acroms-122 miles of ocean’ where swift tides rush between the Gulf Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. cross greatest. fishing the world, coral swift tidal pass- d with the rich palms and flowers \ Indies, It will con- id of Key West with Florida mainland, and form last link in the Atlantic Coast Highway from Maine to the southern extremity of Florida. When $his"road is completed and its completion is expected to oc- eur injtwo and one-half years, Huh Rs a3 six to seven hour journey ferry their cars to Ha- of {¥ork, and Havana, by car ferry, |within fifty-three. It carries on a |huge “business with Cuba, moving |thousands of cars of early Cuban I pineapples every season, and other Cnban products, and carrying down | machinery and manufactured }goods. | | The Overseas Highway | Key. West, which through the County Commissioners of Monroe County, Florida, is carrying on the Overseas Highway, calls at- |tention to the immense ‘success }of thé Florida East Coast Rail- jway as an indication that the high- | way will also prove profitable. So \far Monroe County has had two bond issues for the, construction of the Qverseas Highway. The first, voted several years ago, was |for $300,000. The second, voted more than eighteen months ago, was for $2,600,000. Other amounts will.be yoted when re- quired, a spokesman for the road said. Needing: less“ heavy found- ations and pursuing a less direet route than the railway, the Over- seas Auto Highway will not be so expensive. It will take great ad- vantage of the contour of the chain of small keys or islands that stretch from the Plorida mainland to the Dry Tortugas. Simultane- ous building is going along on many links of the road, As each stretch is completed it will con- neet with the stretch above or helow. The biggest and ‘latest news of the new Overseas Auto Road. is that the County Commissioners of Monroe County, Florida, in which Key West is located, have taken steps for the bridging of two deep gaps. of water, seven and twelve miles wide, respectively, where the water is said to reach a depth of thirty feet in some places. They have let a provisional. ‘franchise to a well-known engineering con- cern of Minneapolis for the con- struction of toll bridges over these ips. At a meeting of the Coun- 0 perpen 4 I attend- was announced ip the pre- liminary prospectus that “a charge one dollar per passenger car |Wwould be made. at each of the bridges, and. ten cents additional torists has aroused the enthusiasm of car owners throughout © the United States. It will be a final demonstration of the power‘of the automobile, to create: good roads under any circumstances, and the eost of the road will be many times ‘paid for by the motor tolls and the immense appreciation of land values in the fertile keyg. Key West is-an important-city, a port for ships trading with South Am- erica, Cuba, the West Indies, Texas, Mexico, the lower Gulf Coast of the United States and Central America and Panama. Undoubtedly thete will be com- mercial traffic along the new road; though the heaviest sort of trucking will likely not be per- mitted. Primarily it will be for the motorist and tourist, but the sam of its receipts. will more than make a satisfactory return on the investment, in‘ the opinion of ex- perts who have studied its possi- bilities. St strongly. did «the. economic possibilities and the romance of the road appeal to W. J. Conners, steamship magnate and newspaper proprietor of Buffalo, N. Y., that he recently told members of - the Rotary Club of-Key West that he would be one of twelve men, each of whom should contribute one million dollars to bring the two deep water gaps along the route. As the tentative franchise tothe engineering firm was then about to. be granted, it was not possible for the commissioners to consider Mr. Conners’ proposal at that time. From Key West the road has al- ready beer built about eight miles toward the mainland, passing fieross several islands on the way. At its extremity is a curious pile driver which is now walking across the water and islets, laying the track upon which it proceeds. The other day it was just proceeding to walk over a vast jungle of man- groves on Bird Key. When the pile driver has driven two huge creosoted pilings into the earth, the stringers are laid on them and it draws itself forward by its own power upon this new foundation. Ahead of it you could see another section of the road coming down to fill the gaps . Like Being At Sea On some of "the stretches al- ready built the low-lying islets ap- pear far on the horizon and the motorist has the feeling he is out ion the sea, This illusion will be heightened on the longest bridge. Almost always steamers can be “|per passenger. A man who would] seen in the lane which follows the thirty feet of water. It the contents of a sever , or its eq to build a single pier. This won- derful }ailroad, ridiculed at first’ @8 am ®normous example of ex travagdnce, today brings Key West ‘within forty-seven hours of New not pay $2.20 to drive ear} Gulf Stream in its Northern turn across these _rainbow-hued<»keys|around Key West, and frequently with their wealth of tropical water|they are but a few miles distant, birds, and innumerable m 8 Of | Strong currents between the Gulf greatjigame fish nearby,” with|of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean their hundreds of, miles of cocoa-|swirl beneath the road when the nut-festooned shores, and wonder- ful wild fruits and flowers, has a soul small enough to slide through a needle’s eye. Bridging the Gap It is expected that when the toad is completed it will be for- mally opened by a giaht motor- cade comprised of cars from all Parts of the United States and Canada. The great work of bridg- this one hundred and twenty- two mile gap. between the Florida land and the city of Key West for the convenience of mo- ere, MY ‘You WOMEN IN DEAR, (3 SOMSTHING ON POLITICS... YU OUGHT To READ ir ! ‘tide Moves with greatest velocity. deliciousfruit- like a muskmelon, Fish of many. sorts are now being | growing almost twenty feet high. caught from the road by people| Bananas grow luxuriantly. There|* of Key West; even barracuda have’) ave tens of thousands of bearing ‘been taken besides scores of less- cocoanuts along the shore _ line, |< er. prizes. and when tl The most wonderful fish that |better thansthe cool: milk readily ;you can sometimes see from. the j obtained. by: chopping off the husk ‘route is the shy, elusive bone fish, - the end nearest the tree with jwhich many sportsmen eonsider|}a sharp hatchet. “The deer are }positively the greatest small-game }indigenous' to’ the -keys-of- South- {fish in the world. Great fisher-|ern Florida, and are said to be.a ‘men of the Keys like Zane Grey, | different variety. than those found Nat Jerlew, George Schutt, Meis- \¢lsewhere. selbach and Johnson, and Irving/’ From the mainland toward Key Cobb, compare him to a young! West the road has already been |torpedo operating with a high graded for several miles south of |charge of explosive. The bone fish | Florida City. On Key Largo Island, weighs up. to twelve pounds but |the first island after leaving the is usually caught from three to/mainland, thirty miles of «road |seven pounds. There are more haye been put into shape. There prizes up for bone fish at the Long jis # good read almost the length | Key Fishing Club than for almost jof Matecumbe Key, where North- jany other fish, not excepting the|ern bankers have an exclusive sail fish. He will take out three club, And another on Islamorada. to. six hundred feet of line in.ajIn fact, more than two-thirds of straight rush so fast it makes your the marvelous highway is already head swim. He is said by his ad-'completed. A town is going up |mirers to be the spéelliest;’ ganéstton Key Largo, and an immense jsmall ocean fish in the world. He |amonnt of land has been cleared jis so’shy that a sneeze or a turn! for it. lof the head will set him going like | Key West is a splendid terminus {a flash of blue lightning. \for the Overseas Auto Road. It has | . The reason you can see him from |several good hotels including the the road is that he follows the ris-!#ne Hotel Casa Marina, an Alham- jing -tide over the shoals, beingpya in solid concrete built by the caught in from eight inches to}Piorida East ‘Coast Hotel Com- |two feet of water. I Saw the silver| pany and said by many to be fins of a dozen the other evening itheir finest hostelry. La Concha, as they grubbed in the shallow} has re- 2 5 |a new downtown hotel | crystalline water, sometimes stand- | sently been erected by Northern ling on their heads with tails out 'Canital. A new oper house has like silver banners, digging for the |heen built. A club house and fine |shell, fish on which they feed.) has heen created on ie “ce-igolf links | There are all sorts of sub-fropical stock Island, two miles from Key |fish along this route. On. Big)Pine | oct along. the Overseas auto The city has put in scores of improvements ard is stepping |Key is a big shark works. where | ponte. jalong with the best of them. It jthey turn sharks’ skin into com- jmercial leather. From 300 to 1,- ‘is oné ofthe deep water ports in The car- * s 445 the country with splendid docks 500 sharks are often taken heavy nets in. a night. casses of the skinned sharks are are buoyed with light’ cypress | 1,500 automobile owners in Key cubes and weighted at the bottom | West and they can hardly wait un- with leaden. ‘slugs. Nat Jerlaw, 4i the new overseas road: is com- pleted. famous fisherman, offers tq pull} a shark into shoal water, and to} kill him with a knife, and expects | Z= to pull the stunt for the benefit} | Paul P. Lumley of a photographer very soon. Plenty of Fish The currents between the At- lantic and the Gulf slip through the passes where all sorts of fish find food. There are many non- commercial fish on which the big fish prey, and as they have so many refuges in the coral rocks which would cut netsiand seines to} piece’, it is likely. that the small fish will never be driven out, and thus the .big game fish will not! have to go elsewhere to find food. The keys wilk-grow all“sorts of. tropical fruits and trees; The, other day in the jungle I came) upon‘a wonderful specimen of papaya, a tree which bears. a} HARDWARE AND BUILDERS MATERIAL. PAINTS AND VARNISHES, ROOFING Cor. Grinnell and James Sts. "Free, Prompt Delivery PHONE 838 THE SPECIAL SIX 4DOOR SEDAN Especially is the far greater QUALITY and VALUE of this car apparent in its, brilliantly smooth and responsive perform- ance—and the price is the lowest ever placed on a Nash 4-Door Sedan, : MELTZER & NAVARRO AUTO CO. Distributors For Monroe County sty there is nothing 4 product of the far a entire life has been identified with that section of the country. Born in. Oregon. City, -he- i his parents in boyhoéd to Califor- nia, where as a youth he. worked at farming; blacksmithing, and eattle herding: Through his own efforts he wag able to secure the advantage of a college education. After completing his studies he beeame a school teacher-and for many years: thereafter he served as superintendent “and principal of schools in California. Mr. Markham has ~been -a- writer of poems since boyhood, but-his liter- ary reputation rests almost: wholly upon the one poem; “The Man With the Hoe,” which was written in 1899 and at the time attracted world-wide attention. € AN EXHILARATING EFFECT A bottle’ of Herbine on the shelf at home is like having a doctor in the house all the time. It gives instant, relief when the digestion gets out of order or. the bowels fail to act. One of two doses is all that is necessary to start things moving and restore that fine feeling’ of exhilaration *and buoyant of spirits which belongs only to perfect health. Price, 60c, Sold by all druggists. MW P Finding the church to which he had been assigned in a filthy con- dition, Rev. London scrubbed it before preach- ing his first sermon. jusetlas bait to the seines which |4"4 failway terminals, There are| ’ Qui Relief with William White of}, | OFFICE: Corner ‘Fleming and Margaret Streets Cable Address: Trot Phone, 788, cof Pe 0, Bos 182 + KEY WEST, FLORIDA IF IT IS RESULTS you /WANT, WE GET It 0! ‘e : “EVERYTHING IN MUSIC.” ” Me Now is tin tine te BUILD and take es advantage of the sensational drop in the market. SOUTH FLORIDA CONTRA & ENGINEERING CO. “Your Home Is Worthy Of The Best’ Phone 598