Train - The Celestial Railroad 1896 Postcard

Colorized photo from 1896 Original Title: Jupiter & Lake Worth RR Location: Jupiter Florida This is the Jupiter and Lake worth railway, it made trips to a steamboat company. It's a narrow gauge train (3ft), and had a 7.5 mile connection between Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West. It connected Lake worth at Juno, FL; to Jupiter inlet in Jupiter Florida; with intermediate stops at Venus and Mars. Because of this the train was often called the Celestial Railroad. The purpose of this railroad was to link Lake Work and Jupiter inlet, both of which had steamboat lines. there were no turning tracks, locomotives always pointed to Juno, forcing trains to make the trips in reverse. The fare was rather expensive at the time, 10 cents per mile, for a total of 75 cents (about $22 of today's money). Henry Flagler, the owner of the Florida East Coast Railway, rejected the high price, instead building his own line to the west. The new railroad was finished in February 1894, and the Jupiter and Lake Worth Railway was gone by June 1896. Eventually, a canal was dug between the two waterways that the railroad connected; this is now part of the Intracoastal Waterway. Part of the right-of-way was used for the current alignment of U.S. 1 (SR 5), built in 1956; the rest was abandoned and has been mostly redeveloped.