[Photos via Monroe County Public Library]

Over a hundred years ago, the first train to cross the Overseas Railroad, technically known as the Key West extension of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway, chugged into Key West. It was a railroad that, hopping from island to island, spanned an ocean to reach the luxurious new Casa Marina Hotel in Key West, as well as Key West's steamer docks where, for an additional fare, passengers could remain ensconced in their rail cars while the cars themselves were loaded aboard ships bound for Cuba. The world was in a new, if short lived and overly decadent era. New York to Havana by train!

To commemorate 'Flagler's Folly', which blew away in a hurricane in the '30s, the Monroe County Public Library uploaded hundreds of photos of the old railroad to Flickr, where the whole extraordinary ordeal that was the Overseas Railway can be explored. We've uploaded 30 of them here. It may have been a folly, but oh what a folly it was. Do have a look.

· The Centennial Of The Overseas Railway [Flickr]