Success came in threes to Flagler................railroad tracks.............usually come in twos...............two parallel tracks........



When Flagler first visited Florida in 1878, he recognized the state's potential for growth but noticed a lack of hotel facilities. Flagler returned to Florida and in 1885 began building a grand St. Augustine hotel, the Hotel Ponce de Leon. Flagler realized that the key to developing Florida was a solid transportation system and consequently purchased the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax Railroad. He also noticed that a major problem facing the existing Florida railway systems was that each operated on different gauge systems, making interconnection impossible. Shortly after purchasing the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Halifax Railroad, he converted the line to a standard gauge.
The Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Halifax River Railway served the north eastern portion of the state and was the first railroad in what would eventually become the Florida East Coast Railway Company. Before Flagler bought the organization, the railroad stretched only between South Jacksonville and St. Augustine and lacked a depot sufficient to accommodate travelers to his St. Augustine resorts. Flagler built a modern depot facility as well as schools, hospitals and churches, systematically revitalizing the largely abandoned historic city.