The Florida Coast Line Canal and Transportation Company (FCLCTC) was chartered in 1881 to construct a series of canals connecting existing lakes and rivers between St. Augustine and Lake Worth, Florida. The company begun through the urging of St. Augustine residents, led by Dr. John Westcott, a prominent local politician. In 1893, railroad mogul Henry Flagler became associated with the company in order to help extend his railroad to the south of the state.
Florida state law chapter 3641, approved February 6, 1885, gave the company the ability to extend its canal from Biscayne Bay to Key West, and gave it land grants for that part.
Florida state law chapter 4284, approved May 27, 1893, extended the time limit for the company to construct the canal from St. Augustine to Biscayne Bay from June 1, 1894, to June 1, 1897; any sections completed after that date would not receive land grants.
Florida state law chapter 4283, approved June 2, 1893, authorized the company to give the portion along the Indian River between Goat Creek and Jupiter Inlet to the United States government, which planned to improve it.
The Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is a 3,000-mile (4,800 km) inland waterway along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts of the United States, running from Massachusetts southward along the Atlantic Seaboard and around the southern tip of Florida, then following the Gulf Coast to Brownsville, Texas. Some sections of the waterway consist of natural inlets, saltwater rivers, bays, and sounds, while others are artificial canals. It provides a navigable route along its length without many of the hazards of travel on the open sea.
Henry Morrison Flagler was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil, which was first based in Ohio. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founder of the Florida East Coast Railway, much of which he built through convict leasing. He is also known as a founder of the cities of Miami and Palm Beach, Florida.
Key Biscayne is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies south of Miami Beach and southeast of Miami. The key is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947.
The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México.
The Cross Florida Barge Canal, now officially the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway is a protected green belt corridor, more than one and a half miles (1.6 km) wide in places. It is named for the leader of opposition to the Cross Florida Barge Canal, Marjorie Harris Carr, and was originally a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers canal project to connect the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean across Florida for barge traffic. Two sections were built but the project was ultimately cancelled, due to local opposition related to environmental concerns, including protecting the state's water supply and conservation of the Ocklawaha River Valley ecosystem, but also due to national opposition for the costs being perceived as "government waste" with "limited national value."
The Florida Midland Railway Company was incorporated under the general incorporation laws of Florida, and surveyed a line from Lake Jessup, in Orange County, to Leesburg, in Lake County.
The Arcadia, Gulf Coast and Lakeland Railroad Company was owned by George B. Morton, Anthony Peters and Woodward Emery. It was incorporated under Florida state law chapter FOO, approved May 21, 1891, "for the purpose of constructing, maintaining and operating a railroad from a point on or near Gasparilla Island, in the county of Lee, via the town of Arcadia, in the county of DeSoto, to Plant City, in the county of Hillsborough, and to the city of Lakeland, in the county of Polk, with such extensions and branches as they may deem necessary". The railroad was promised land grants along its line. The company managed to operate a short 9-mile stretch of track between Bradenton and Sarasota.
The Carrabelle, Tallahassee & Georgia Railroad was a shortline railroad running in north Florida and southern Georgia.
The Palm Beach Railway and Power Company was a Florida railroad. It was incorporated under Florida state law chapter 4265, approved May 25, 1893, under the ownership of Edward Manrara, Candide A. M. Ybor and Emilio Pons, "to build, construct, purchase, own, maintain and operate a line or lines of street railway in the city of Tampa, on any street not already occupied by any other competing line of street railway; and may extend said railroad from said city of Tampa to any point on Hillsborough Bay, east of the Hillsborough River. And further, shall have the right and power to erect, construct, purchase, own and operate an electric light plant, in or out of said city of Tampa, for the purpose of furnishing said city and vicinity and the inhabitants thereof with electric lights."
The Atlantic, Suwannee River and Gulf Railroad Company was a railroad under the control of the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad (FC&PR) that ran westward from Starke, Florida, eventually terminating at Wannee, Florida, on the Suwannee River. It was later absorbed by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad.
Florida state law chapter 3486, approved February 26, 1883, incorporated the Florida Ship Canal Company, owned by Townsend Cox, Wm. Fullerton, John H. Fry, L. M. Lawson, S. T. Meyer, Micheal Jacobs and David McAdam, of the City of New York; John C. Brown, of Tennessee; Wm. Mahone, Wm. E. Cameron, A. W. Jones and V. D. Groner, of Virginia; John P. Jones, of Nevada; Benj. F Butler, of Massachusetts; and W. H. Manning, of Ohio,
The Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway Company was incorporated under the general incorporation laws of Florida. Florida state law chapter ?, approved February 28, 1881, confirmed the incorporation and gave it land grants.
The Green Cove Springs and Melrose Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge common carrier and logging railroad that operated between 1881 and 1899. Its core route ran for 33.5 miles in a southwesterly direction from the city of Green Cove Springs, Florida, United States, to the lakeside town of Melrose.
The Atlantic and Mexican Gulf Canal Company was a canal project approved February 23, 1876 and owned by Joseph E. Johnston, General Lafayette McLaws and Joseph Shepard of Georgia, and others. The purpose was constructing a canal from the St. Marys river in Georgia, across the Okeefinokee Swamp, and thence westward by the most direct and practicable route, as the company may determine, to connect with the waters of the Gulf of Mexico on the coast of Florida, for the purpose of transporting from the Atlantic to the Gulf along the route indicated, and to market on either side, the timber, lumber and other products of the country, and other commercial products as may be offered, and the convenience of the route may determine of may attract to it.
Hamilton Disston was an industrialist and real-estate developer who purchased four million acres (16,000 km²) of Florida land in 1881, an area larger than the state of Connecticut, and reportedly the most land ever purchased by a single person in world history. Disston was the son of Pennsylvania-based industrialist Henry Disston who formed Disston & Sons Saw Works, which Hamilton later ran and which was one of the largest saw manufacturing companies in the world.
Julia DeForest Tuttle was an American businesswoman who owned the property upon which Miami, Florida, was built. For this reason, she is called the "Mother of Miami." She is the only woman to have founded what would become a major American city.
The Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway was a railroad and steamboat network in Florida, USA at the end of the 19th century. Most of its lines became part of the Plant System in 1899 and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. The line remains in service today with a vast majority of it now being CSX Transportation's Sanford Subdivision.
The Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal and Railroad was the first steam railroad in Florida and one of the first in the U.S., opening in 1836. With the collapse of the town of St. Joseph, the railroad was abandoned by 1842.
A national push for expansion and progress toward the latter part of the 19th century stimulated interest in draining the Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, for agricultural use. According to historians, "From the middle of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, the United States went through a period in which wetland removal was not questioned. Indeed, it was considered the proper thing to do."
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