Pork
<To add to your most informative post, the rail roads in Florida were built soley so the investors could milk the Florida government of the bounty of 2,000 acres of land for each mile of rail built.
So, on the east coast Flagler built first to Palm Beach and then his greed directed him to bilk the state out of even more land by driving his rails all the way down to Key West.
There was nothing down in Key West to justify building the road, but there was minimal clearing and if a bridge were built, a straight shot.
If there was a government bounty on building railroads, it wasn't capitalism, it was a subsidy. Why do I have to keep explaining this stuff?