By J. Bruce Richardson, Corridor Rail Development Corporation; March 2, 2021
Henry Flagler’s railroad-building prowess is the gift to Florida which keeps on giving, even in the third decade of the 21st Century. The man who almost single-handedly built the modern east coast of Florida, from St. Augustine to Miami thanks to his Florida East Coast Railway vision and will of accomplishment, continues to benefit current Floridians with a new project on his land.
By 1894 Flagler’s railroad had reached West Palm Beach; the Royal Poinciana Hotel in Palm Beach was constructed, as well as the Breakers Hotel directly on the beach and across the street he built his private winter home, Whitehall, a modest 55 room, 60,000 square foot structure which today is a museum and open to the public (It’s a fascinating couple of hours or more visiting; included in a new structure is Flagler’s private railroad car, which can also be toured.).
At this point the railroad was officially called the Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Indian River Railroad Company.
By 1895, due to winter freezes in Central Florida, Flagler considered pushing his railroad even further south, to the hamlet of Miami. Major Miami landowners Julia Tuttle and William Brickell offered half of their land holdings to Flagler if he would push the railroad to the shores of Biscayne Bay. In 1896, the railroad was completed to the bay, and what is today’s downtown Miami became the railroad’s southern terminus. This was the time the railroad name was changed to the Florida East Coast Railway Company and incorporated in April of 1896.
As was his custom, understanding he had to provide a reason for passengers to ride his trains, Flagler built The Royal Palm Hotel in Miami, dredged a channel for ships, built city streets, instituted the first city water and power systems and financed the town’s first newspaper, the Metropolis.
Flagler was perhaps one of the first proponents of what today we call Transit Oriented Development. Building resort hotels, building new towns out of sandy hamlets, and creating prosperity wherever he went was his hallmark. It was the beginning of the Flagler System, which lasted for nearly a century.
In 1904, Flagler decided to create the Overseas Railway, pushing his railroad from Miami to Key West. A ten mile part of the railroad’s right-of-way from downtown Miami to Key West ran parallel to what would later become U.S. 1 in Miami-Dade County, also known as Dixie Highway. The rail line to Key West opened in 1912, less then two years before Flagler’s death in Palm Beach. Most know the story of the 1935 hurricane which wiped out the rail line; the railroad was never rebuilt. The southern terminus of the FEC became Florida City, south of Miami.
Here’s the fun part. In 1980, 41 years ago, construction was begun on then-Dade County’s Metrorail mass transit system. The previous year, the Florida East Coast Railway had transferred it’s line south of downtown Miami to the county, and Metrorail was built on the former FEC right-of-way, paralleling South Dixie Highway.
But the new Metrorail was built in the sky similar to a monorail, not at ground level. A ride on Metrorail provides an interesting bird’s-eye view of the surrounding areas. The old FEC right-of-way land underneath Metrorail was maintained, but not developed in any concerted way.
That has all changed, now. Seven years in the making, the first section of the 10-mile park, known as The Underline has opened to the public. Metrorail zips along up top, pedestrians and their pets stroll along at ground level, with a separate path for bicyclists. The now open first section is in the upscale Brickell neighborhood, appropriately named the Brickell Backyard. It is half a mile long and runs from the Miami River to Coral Way through the part of town known for Brickell Avenue.
A section called The Urban Gym is an active recreation space with flex courts for basketball and mini-pitch soccer, complete with spectator seating and areas for strength training and stretching, as well as space for group classes. A running track surrounds the gym area.
The Underline will eventually incorporate 120 acres of native vegetation reforestation, 4,000 trees and butterfly gardens. Urban public art is also part of the plans. Plaques with mini-history lessons are sprinkled throughout the Underline, and an open space along the Miami River, The River Room, offers an unique vantage point for viewing the river. Much more is offered in the first phase, and more is planned for the entire 10-mile long project.
The best part is, land which was once critical to Henry Flagler’s railroad empire and made possible the enormous engineering and construction accomplishment of the Overseas Railway over a century later still hosts critical railway infrastructure in the modern Metrorail system, but also provides an urban oasis for the millions of Floridians living in South Florida.
Metrorail today connects in downtown Miami with MiamiCentral Station of Brightline fame, another modern innovation on Henry Flagler’s original railroad.
Henry Flagler, perhaps the pioneer of Transit Oriented Development, would be pleased and proud. Over a century after his death, he still has a modern, changing impact on the lives of Floridians.