Commodore Avylen Harcourt Brook was born in Sheffield, England, in 1866 into a family of silver and bronze electroplaters. His early education was in England. Brook studied art under the famous English artist and critic John Ruskin. It was said that one of his 'parlor tricks' was to paint two paintings simultaneously, one with his [...]
Category: economy
Corthell’s 1889 Estimate of the Cost to Complete the Florida East Coast Canal
In 1888, Florida canal company general manager George F. Miles engaged acclaimed Chicago waterway and railway engineer Elmer Corthell to survey the soil, rock, sand, and other material the Company dredges would likely encounter in completing the waterway and to estimate the cost of completion.In turn, Corthell employed a former Army engineer, Artur [sic] Wrotnowski, [...]
December 2013 plans to deepen the ICW
Plans to deepen the waterway in Broward and Palm Beach counties threaten sea grass, Deerfield Island Park and Palm Beach County. Deepening the waterway and its estuaries to attract mega yacht business potentially threatens the environment. http://touch.sun-sentinel.com/#story/fl-megayacht-dredge-20131215/.
The Steamer “Swan” Schedule of Tolls
The listing of tolls to travel along what would become the Intracoastal Waterway between several points along the privately owned Florida East Coast Canal in 1911. During its long history, the "Swan" would carry freight and passengers, and often, passengers and their automobiles. Freight included large cargoes of citrus fruit and pineapples in the late [...]
Boston & Florida Atlantic Coast Land Company
In 1892, to raise additional cash to finance canal dredging, Bradley enlisted the assistance of Albert P. Sawyer, a wealthy Newburyport, Mass. investor to organize a new company to raise $100,000. Sawyer selected the State of Maine as the venue for the new enterprise because Sawyer believed that Maine assessed the least amount of incorporation [...]
Florida’s Big Dig 