Florida's Great Ocean Railway de Dan Gallagher

Florida's Great Ocean Railway: Building the Key West Extension

Dan Gallagher

en Limba Engleză Paperback – 18 dec 2013

The building of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway extension over water to Key West from 1905 to 1916 was s triumph of engineering and logistics. The Keys were remote and with little means of communication. The massive amounts of materials had to be moved with steam power. This book tells the story of the planners and their plan and its execution. It has 250 old photos, most have never been published before.

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A Writing Style Shaped by Life-experiences: As the youngest of eight in a Catholic working class family; as a soldier, scholar, family man, advisor, and adventurer, Dan developed a vivid, hard-hitting style: He has trekked volcanoes, deserts, swamps; trudged Appalachian, Arizonan, and Venezuelan heights & gorges. He has explored exotic locations like Macau, Hong Kong, the Everglades, Bayous, Mexico's Baja... even New Jersey! Attacked by a charging bear, Dan killed it at fourteen feet, evaded a northern Canada wolf-pack and an enraged moose. He's parachuted, been in a knife fight and numerous other life-threatening tangles. Though he's not seen combat, Dan held command of Mechanized Infantrymen in live-fire assaults, ambushes, and defenses in Germany & the U.S. He has lived in Rhode Island, Alexandria & Williamsburg, VA, and North Carolina.Other personal experiences inform Dan's writing style. He knows what faith, race, and age discrimination feel like. He helped reform court-marshaled soldiers, consoled the homeless, and took charge in deadly accidents: a C-130 aircraft crash and a 110 mph motorcycle collision. In counseling clients (Dan's pre-retirement financial & business brokerage work), Dan handled hundreds of millions in transactions. He's seen what strengthens and dissolves relationships. Dan has experienced spiritual and miraculous phenomena and investigated those of others. Dan usually pursued simultaneous endeavors (studied Economics, Modern Languages, Finance Math, English, and was a published professional instructor). He's been a lifelong student of Natural Sciences, Comparative Religion, and Cryptozoology. Dan and his wife Laura have been in love for over three decades and treasured raising their four "snit-generating" kids. Several professional and personal tragedies have been profoundly humbling. Yet, through it all, Dan kept sane to help others. He says, "I give psychological counseling to my cat, Watson, who claims to be a sabre-tooth tiger. Watson must think I'm gullible: he never tries to convince others of his delusions."Dan is the author of financial & expository nonfiction and quite a bit of humor, but mostly speculative and adventure fiction; no fantasy. He endeavors to give readers vivid sensory and emotional experiences. His bio is at the AuthorDan website. Reader-friends know his "narrative voice" is never flowery, highbrow, wimpy, politically correct, self-important, pedantic or whiny. He builds suspense, intrigue, curiosity, fascination, fear, compassion, and other intense emotions, often challenging readers to think deeply or persuading them to act with conviction. His writing always employs plausibility to help readers suspend disbelief.