204 . 
ACROSS THE GULF BY RAIL TO KEY WEST 
which can float the largest ships of the United States Navy, has 
four entrances. The southwest passage has 33 feet of water on 
the bar, the main ship channel 30 feet, the southeast 22 feet, 
and the northwest 14 feet. A vessel leaving the harbor of Key 
West by the southwest passage would have to sail but 10 miles 
before she could shape her course for her port of destination, 
and through the main ship channel she would have only five 
miles to run l)efore she was at sea. Ships putting into Key West 
for stores or rei)airs neetl go out of their course but 10 miles, 
an advantage possessed by no other port in the United States. 
4'he Government is now engaged in deepening the northwest 
]>assage to 21 feet, and when this is completed ships trading in , 
the gulf will ])ass through the harbor of Key West, coming in at 
one of the main channels and pa.ssing out over the northwest 
l>ar, thus saving 70 miles and avoiding the dangerous reefs around 
the Tortugas islands. 
That Key West will within a short time be connected with the 
mainland by a* railroad, no one who has noted the trend of rail- 
road l)uilding in Florida can doubt. The ultimate object of all 
railroad construction in this state is obviousl}' to reach deep water 
at an extreme southern point, and Ke}'’ West meets the.se re- 
(juirements to the fullest degree. 
The first survey of a railroad route to Key West was made by 
Civil Engineer J. C. Uailey for the International Ocean Tele- 
graph Company as long ago as I860. General W. F. Smith, 
better known as “ Baldy ” Smith, at that time president of the 
company, obtained from the Spanish Government an exclusive 
landing for a calfie on the coast of Cuba for forty years. The 
company had under consideration two plans for reaching Key 
West with its telegraph system. One contemplated a land line 
to Punta Rassa, Florida, and thence b}' cable to Key West; the 
other a continuous land line along the keys. It was proposed 
to drive iron piles into the coral rock in the waters separating 
the keys, and to socket them about 10 feet above high-water 
mark with wooden poles, and iMr Bailey was employed to make 
the surve 3 ^ While engaged in this work he surveyed the route for 
a railroad to Ke}" West, and embodied in his report to the com- 
pany his opinion of its feasibility and cheapness as compared 
with the popular idea of what such a road would cost, ^\'hen 
the Western Union Telegraph Company obtained control of the 
International Ocean Telegraph Company this report came into 
its possession, and it is still on file in its offices in New York. 
