ACROSS THE GULF BY RAIL TO KEY WEST 
By Jefferson B. Browne, 
Collector of Customs of the Port of Key Tlesi 
The traveler aiDproacliing Key West from the gulf of Mexico 
cannot but wonder that upward of twenty thousand jDeople 
should have congregated on a spot so manifestly and completely 
isolated from the rest of the world. After landing and seeing 
how little man has done for the improvement of the island, or 
rather how nature has been marred by man’s mistakes, the vis- 
itor’s wonder changes to absolute amazement that so large a city 
could have grown up Avithout railroad or even wagon-road con- 
nection with the state and country of Avhich it jDolitically forms 
a part. Unless, however, our visitor is an exceedingly superfi- 
cial observer, he will soon begin to realize that it is not so much 
a matter of surprise that the city has attained its present groAvth 
as that, with the natural advantages it possesses, its development 
has not been still greater. He Avill learn that for fifty years Key 
West has held its supremacy as the most poinilous city of the 
state, and that it OAves its prosperity not to any single industry, 
but to the diversity of its sources of revenue, the outgroAvth 
mainly of its geographical location. Its fisheries, its siionge in- 
du.stry, its cigar manufactories, its importance as a coaling station 
and port of call for the commerce of the gulf, its superior advan- 
tages as a naval rendezvous and military station, all have con- 
tributed to the upbuilding of Key Weston thatl)road foundation 
Avhich is the secret of its continued prosperity. The shipl)uilder, 
the sailor, and the sponger, the fisherman, the Avrecker, and the 
stevedore, the cigarmaker and the machinist, the truck farmer 
and the fruit groAver, all find em])loyment in Key \>’est and the 
adjacent islands, and no man Avith a technical knoAvlodge of any 
branch of industr}’, Avith the single important exception of rail- 
roading, ever has to abandon his trade and seek a livelihood in 
another. 
It is not too much to say that upon the comi)letion of the 
Nicaragua canal. Key West Avill become the most imj)ortant city 
in the South. Its harbor, land-locked by reefs and keys, in 
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