The Last train to Paradise   Words and Music Chris Foster   copyright 2003 Chris Foster Music Publishing      What was known as a modern day marvel   A great railroad that crossed over sea   It defied all the whitecaps and the deep coral bed    And linked the whole world to the keys      Who should take on this lofty endeavor?   But a man who they said was obsessed   Who’d made millions of dollars refining crude oil   Now his focus was on reaching Key West      Skeptics and cynics who used pens as their lances   Took cheap shots at him and asked what were the chances   That the railroad you’re building make good on the quest    Of rolling over the ocean right into Key West?       The Last train to paradise   They’d dubbed Flagler’s folly for the use of a knife   Undeterred by their antics Henry went on with life   And drew up the plans for the last train to paradise.      It all started when he first came to Florida   His friends told him that he should retire   You could live off your wealth till the end of your days   But inside Henry still had his fire.       He said this place aint what it could be   With the weather so nice all year round    So I’ll buy up the Halifax/ Jacksonville rail    And track it south from town to town.       We’ll track over rivers and track over streams    We’ll track over farmland and other mans dreams   We’ll track it through mangroves and track it through the fields   And were we can’t track we will dredge for the fill      We’ll build the last train to paradise   New towns and new hotels where the weather is nice    Right on to Fort Dallas where they suffer no ice   He continued to build the last train to paradise.       When the railroad got as far south as Homestead.    They thought Henry, had then done his best    But in the back of his brain a notion remained    To take the railroad right on to Key West.       Where Deep water awaited the liners    and shipping trades to the canal.   But what stood in his way was the great Biscayne bay    And an inlet that spanned 7 miles.       Faced with the fact that he had to cross ocean   He put all his engineers minds into motion   Devising a plan to extend the great line   By building a sea bridge one arch at a time.       The last train to paradise    Rolled over the ocean against all advice   Almost in defiance he didn’t think twice   He had completed the last train to paradise.      Mother nature had dealt him some losses    Hurricanes in 0 6 9 and 10   But his vision stayed strong and he vowed to go on    In the memory of the losses men   After 7 long years to completion   He rolled south in his car 91   He enjoyed every mile with a big eager smile   Because impossible things had been done      And the skeptics and cynics who had used pens as their lances   Were in awe of the man who had met their advances   Henry answered all questions and passed all the test    When the conductor yelled now arriving key west”      The last train to paradise   Built with muscle and sweat and a vision precise   Unparalleled by what he accomplished in life   A divine inspiration. The Last train to paradise       Artist notes:      This song is meant to showcase the determination of one man    to the fulfillment of his vision to build a railroad to Key West.    Henry Flagler was not only an oil magnet but a visionary    who redefined the face of Florida and made it accessible to all.    Very few people are ever taught what an impact he had on Florida’s    development. Henry’s motives to build the railroad began with    commerce in mind but one gets the sense while researching    the events of the building of the railroad that toward the end    of the project it was his personal desire and not a    monetary one to see his railroad cross the ocean.    One might have the belief he built it as a monument to himself.    Others might believe that he had the obsession to prove all    of his critics wrong. Either way, it stood as a testament to a    mans shear will and determination to accomplish the impossible.    Although the railroad was never a money maker and was    destroyed in the labor day hurricane of 1935, It was not the    focus of my song. It was not the railroads peril that was the story,   but rather the ingenuity of man and the desire to overcome    incredible odds in the face of heavy criticism.      http://www.theamericansongwriter.com