Making light rail look easy

I'm going to Florida this month, and I like to get in the vacation mood by reading books set in the destination locale. Because I have zero attention span for fiction, I picked out a book called Last Train To Paradise. It recounts the spectacular rise (and fall) of the oversea railroad from Miami to Key West, also known as one of the most insane construction projects ever attempted. I can't imagine building Central Corridor in open water, in tropical heat, through hurricanes, for 130 miles. It's all relative, isn't it?

Florida east coast causeway to Key West in 1928. 

Photo is public domain.