Dates of operation 1889 or 1890–1896? Headquarters Jupiter, Florida? | Track gauge 3 ft (914 mm) Date of operation 1889 | |
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Locale Jupiter, Florida south to Juno, Florida | ||
The 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge Jupiter and Lake Worth Railway was a 7.5 miles (12.1 km) connection between the Jacksonville, Tampa and Key West Railway system. It connected Lake Worth at Juno, Florida to Jupiter Inlet at Jupiter, Florida. With intermediate stops at Venus and Mars, the railroad was often called the Celestial Railroad.
The purpose of the railroad was to link the Lake Worth and Jupiter Inlet, both of which had Plant System steamboat lines. The Indian River Steamboat Company went north through the Jupiter Inlet and connected waterways (now part of the Intracoastal Waterway) to Titusville.
There were no turning tracks, so the locomotives always pointed towards Juno, forcing trains making the return trip to go in reverse. Fare was rather high for the time, being 10 cents per mile (6.2 ¢/km), a total of 75 cents.
Henry Flagler, the owner of the Florida East Coast Railway, rejected the high price, instead building his own line to the west. The new railroad was finished in February 1894, and the Jupiter and Lake Worth Railway was gone by June 1896.
Eventually, a canal was dug between the two waterways that the railroad connected; this is now part of the Intracoastal Waterway.
Part of the right-of-way was used for the current alignment of U.S. 1 (SR 5), built in 1956; the rest was abandoned and has been mostly redeveloped.