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Show 73, Jeffries, Islamorada [Section 2] "Ancient Engine #10 was like something from them golden spike days, she used to run on the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax Line. We barged her to Marathon and she worked construction. "And there was the train they laughed at, this one was marooned in Key West by the '35 storm, eventually barged to Miami, and they run the headline FEC's HAVANA SPECIAL ARRIVES FROM KEY WEST MONTHS LATE." "So once again. . .miles of track were washed out. . . "The old man was dead. The railroad went into receivership. They practically give away the right-o-way for $800, and, at the same time, the Florida land boom was finished; it was time for Roosevelt, the CCC camps, and across these bridges and viaducts cleverly they build this highway. . ." "What were. . -what was the jobs of the old timers?" "We was charcoal makers and turtle soup canners and hermits. Bridge-tenders and beacon-tenders and. . . and poachers. Dory I'm ashamed to say I've trapped a number of the wild birds." "And farmers?" "Along here was fifty-five miles of pineapple plantations. The railroad right-of-way cut through another business venture, coconut palms, and there was 100-foot royal palms, and railroad workers stayed to plant limes. |