Flagler’s Folly, HD video & animation, 2:26, 2021
Flagler’s Folly is a mini-documentary meditates on one man's short-lived industrial wonder, brought to ruin by the power of nature.
At the turn of the 20th century, Henry Flagler, railroad baron and partner to John Rockafeller in the creation of industrial giant Standard Oil, turned his attention to Florida to lay thousands of track of railroad across the undeveloped land. He became obsessed with creating the “Overseas Railroad,” which would connect Miami to Key West, with the railroad line soaring over the water. Thousands of men labored over the railroad for 12 years, but the project was short-lived: the track was damaged beyond repair by the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935.
To this day, the remains of the railroad jut out over the ocean, alongside US Route 1.
