Pathway through Paradise

INTRODUCTION:  of Flagler & Fisher

  This Keys story has a rather improbable beginning in Indiana with a man named Carl G. Fisher.  It starts here because no one did more to set the national stage for highway construction than Fisher. He was an entrepreneur and promotional genius. Whether he was tossing a bicycle off of a tall building - dangling a motorcar over the city from a hot-air balloon -  or having his pet elephant caddie for the President, his stunts were always original and outrageous!

  He began his career with a bicycle shop in Indianapolis. He is credited with building the first automobile dealership in America. With his friend, Barney Oldfield, he sold Oldsmobile, Reo, Stutz, and Packard. He then, with James Allison, purchased a patent for acetylene automotive headlights and formed the company -  “Prest-o-lite”. Soon every automobile manufactured in America boasted “Prest-o-lite” headlamps!

  Carl loved automobiles and automobile racing. With some associates he built the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He might have been satisfied with a life of racing but he suffered from terrible eyesight. This combination was not a good one.

  At the same time that Henry Flagler was building the “Oversea Railway”, Carl was becoming a very rich man from America’s new passion – the automobile.  Henry Flagler spent a vast fortune building a railroad, Carl Fisher believed America was destined to travel not by rail but by automobile.  Fisher was, of course, right but it is important to note Flagler was a product of the Golden Age of Steel – Fisher was forty-four years his junior.

  Fisher watched our nation’s love affair with the automobile grow but was keenly aware of a major problem – our country had no roadways suitable for automotive travel.  It would be decades before the federal government would begin road building. Roads were the responsibility of state and local governments. In 1912, bringing together state and local authorities, Carl promoted and organized the first cross country roadway – “the Lincoln Highway”. When completed, the drivers could travel from New York City to San Francisco in their private motorcar. “The Lincoln Highway” was a marvel of political organization and promotion!

   In 1914, not satisfied with sitting still, Carl Fisher began a second national Highway project – “the Dixie Highway” running from Michigan’s upper peninsula to Miami. As with “the Lincoln Highway”, Carl formed state and local motor clubs which then lobbied for road construction and road improvement. He promised economic transformation.  Local chambers of commerce scrambled to have “the Dixie Highway” pass through their communities.

  Today we take our interstate highway system for granted but in the early 1900’s this was uncharted territory. The concept was all Carl Fisher’s.

  Meanwhile, Carl’s life was changing. He and his wife had vacationed in Miami in the winter of 1910. Like so many, Carl saw development opportunities in South Florida. By the time he sold “Prest-o-lite” to Union Carbide in 1912, Fisher had formed aggressive plans to convert a swampy barrier island into Miami Beach. He and his wife moved to Miami in 1914.

  Carl G. Fisher had set the national trend for highway development as an economic engine. He then began to set the South Florida stage for the Overseas Highway. Fisher’s deep pockets financed the construction of the Collins Ave. Bridge. Completed in 1913 this low wooden bridge at 2.5 miles in length was the longest highway bridge in the world! It was not by coincidence that “the Dixie Highway” ended at the foot of Carl’s new bridge. (Clever little devil that Carl …)  Carl’s master scheme envisioned America’s new wealthy class motoring down the Dixie highway, crossing the Collins Ave. Bridge and purchasing the real estate that he had dredged up from the bottom of Biscayne Bay! However, this plan was not to be without complications. Fisher threw massive amounts of cash into Miami Beach. The consummate promoter Carl used “Rosie the Elephant” and Times Square billboards to advertise his new resort community. Eventually his plan worked - big time.

  Many of the Biscayne’s exclusive, man-made islands like “Star”, “Hibiscus” and “Palm” Islands are Fisher’s handiwork. By 1926 Fisher’s fortune was estimated at 100 million dollars!

  In South Florida, Fisher was a charter member of the Miami Motor Club. The group was dominated by real estate interests. Their enthusiasm for automobiles was exceeded only by their love for profit.  Carl and his fellow developers felt that a quick highway access to the prolific fishing grounds of the Keys would enhance the value of the property they were promoting. Along with some friends, Fisher owned “Adams Key” just north of Key Largo. Other club members such as the Tatum brothers, (developers of Florida City), held large tracts of land in upper Key Largo. The Miami Motor Club pushed and lobbied for the Overseas Highway. They were instrumental in developing the “Card Sound” route.

  Road building in Florida at that time was a county function. It was easy enough for Fisher, the Tatums et al to have Dade County build their side of the Card Sound Road. Monroe County, however, was another story. This county would very much have to be swayed.

  On January 18, 1925 Fisher hosted a noon meeting in his Miami Beach office with a delegation from Key West which included Key West Mayor Frank H. Ladd and Monroe County Commissioner - J. Otto Kirchheiner.  The Collins Ave. Bridge had brought unimaginable prosperity to Fisher and his community. From high atop the Flamingo, Hotel Carl G. Fisher convincingly told the delegation “Mortgage the shirts off your back if you have to, but build it! (the Overseas Highway). In typical Fisher style, rounds and rounds of refreshments were served!  Years of doubt and controversy evaporated.

  “In Key West”, said Commissioner Kirchheiner “we talk in dimes and dollars. You are sending us back talking in millions!”

The delegation returned to Key West. Headlines the following day declared “Road to Mainland an assured reality as a result of visit.”   On March 12 that same year the Monroe County electorate voted in favor of a 2.65-million dollar bond issue earmarked for roads, bridges and ferries. The vote was 863 for, 2 against! Carl G. Fisher had blazed the trail, set the stage and offered up the decisive, well-lubricated arguments.

  For the Keys it would be decades before all of Carl’s lies became true.

  Carl lost his fortune in the crash of 1929. Tragically, he died penniless ten years later in a Miami Hospital by complications from alcoholism – (but not before building his final legacy to the Keys – the Caribbean Club in Key Largo).