Celestial Railroad

The 7½-mile Celestial Railroad, officially named the Jupiter and Lake Worth Railway (J.& L.W.), operated from 1889 to 1895 and provided an essential link between Jupiter Inlet and the northern end of Lake Worth, where people and goods could transfer to lake steamers because ocean-going ships had no navigable access to the lake and its towns, such as West Palm Beach. Passengers paid 75 cents for the half-hour trip. This three-foot, narrow-gauge line ran through what is now Ocean Drive in present-day Juno Beach. The train had two passenger coaches and three freight cars, which always pointed south, so to head north the train had to travel in reverse. Although it had only two stations, Jupiter and Juno, its builders had planned two additional stations called Venus and Mars, a celestial theme still reflected in many Juno Beach street names. The railroad did not survive the completion of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway, which bypassed the area and ran the entire length of the state.

Juno Beach, Florida · United States