A Milestone Celebration:

INTRODUCTION

The “Roaring Twenties” was a remarkable period in American history. It was an age filled with flapper girls, the Charleston, jazz, radio, flashy cars, bootlegged liquor, and a new morality. Unfortunately, what began with good times and prosperity completely crashed in 1929.

Floridians witnessed something else during that reckless decade: a land boom of historic proportions. During the 1920s, Americans everywhere lusted after the Sunshine State, where stories of real estate profits and get-rich-quick schemes abounded. Soon, home seekers started to arrive by the droves as did developers, speculators, contractors, builders, citrus growers, and farmers, as well as drifters and flim-flam artists. Most people wanted to settle down, others sought to buy land cheap and sell dear, while still others bought real estate unseen. Frequently a parcel was bought and sold as many as ten times in a single day. In the end, enough Florida land was subdivided as to completely re-house the then-existing population of the United States.

Whereas many of the newcomers and tourists came by car and boat, the majority arrived by train, which strained Florida’s railroad capacity. Further, the demand for new homes, hotels, apartments, commercial buildings, and municipal projects brought about a sharp increase in freight traffic. The state’s ‘Big Three’ railroads (Seaboard Air Line, Florida East Coast, and Atlantic Coast Line) were unprepared for the press of business. Consequently, each was forced to undertake projects of expansion and improvements. New routes evolved along with better terminal facilities and new signaling systems. Further, bridges were strengthened, heavier rail was laid, new engines and cars were acquired, and a number of attractive stations arose.

Then, in spring, 1925, something odd happened - many snowbirds failed to go home. In fact, people began pouring into Florida as never before. Another surge in railroad traffic resulted: extra sections of trains had to be added, new trains were inaugurated, and Pullman space was often sold out months in advance. Florida’s merchants and contractors, thinking the building frenzy would never end, began to order supplies and inventories far in excess of actual requirements. Boxcars were often sent to the Sunshine State with no specific destination, frequently changing hands en-route and reaching a location where few if any unloading tracks or warehouse space existed. The result? Thousands of freight cars became stranded in the state, occupying every available track, choking rail yards, and delaying train movements.

To resolve the mess, the ‘Big Three’ ordered an embargo, which took effect that October. Freight traffic came to a halt except for foodstuffs, fuel, and perishables. When the embargo was called, nearly 4,000 freight cars were jammed in the Jacksonville rail yards alone, while another 8,000 were ordered held at Birmingham, New Orleans, St. Louis, Washington, DC, and Cincinnati. Traffic experts from around the country were rushed to Florida to untangle the mess, but not until May of the following year was the embargo lifted. By then, however, the boom was over.

The events in Florida both astonished and challenged railroad executives, especially S. Davies Warfield of the Seaboard Air Line Railway. Convinced that Florida presented unusual opportunities, the aggressive CEO issued $25 million of bonds in order to finance his expansionary projects.

In January, 1925, the Seaboard opened a 204-mile extension - in record time - from its mainline at Coleman (below Wildwood) down to West Palm Beach, by way of Auburndale, Sebring, and Indiantown. That fall, the 13-mile Gross-Callahan Cutoff, which bypassed busy Jacksonville