[ardecila]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

^There is an almost-beachfront railroad between New Orleans and Pascagoula, a distance of about 100 miles. This route travels through Gulfport and Biloxi and has a number of 1+ mile bridges across bays.

Mobile Bay is the only big harbor between New Orleans and Tampa, which is why it has tunnels and everything east has causeways that aren't high enough for freighters, cruise ships, and oil rigs.

For fun you can see how a railroad could be built between Pensacola and Panama City entirely on the barrier islands. It would require a 3-mile causeway in Pensacola and 1-mile causeway at the eastern end to connect to an existing railroad on the mainland in Panama City. The bridges between the various barrier islands wouldn't have to be very big.

In short, it would take about 150~ miles of new railroad to build a comprehensive east-west link across the Gulf Coast between Mobile and Tallahassee. The afore-mentioned Mobile Bay crossing would be, by far, the biggest cost and engineering hurdle.

Huh? Sure you could build the bridges, but the barrier islands are fully built up, except where they are protected as military or park land. Where would you put a new ROW?