We have been looking forward to this week for so long. We headed down to the Keys. The Florida Keys are islands made of coral reefs. There are approximately 1,700 islands that make up the Florida Keys. The islands lie along the Florida Straits, dividing the Atlantic Ocean to the east from the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and defining one edge of Florida Bay. At the nearest point, the southern part of Key West is just 90 mile from Cuba.
The Keys were long accessible only by water. This changed with the completion of Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railway in the early 1910s. Flagler, a major developer of Florida’s Atlantic coast, extended his Florida East Coast Railway down to Key West with an ambitious series of oversea railroad trestles. Three hurricanes disrupted the project in 1906, 1909, and 1910.
One of the longest bridges when it was built, the Seven Mile Bridge connects Knight’s Key (part of the city of Marathon in the Middle Keys) to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. The piling-supported concrete bridge is 6.79 miles long. The current bridge bypasses Pigeon Key, a small island that housed workers building Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway in the 1900s, that the original Seven Mile Bridge crossed. A 2.2-mile section of the old bridge remains for access to the island, although it was closed to vehicular traffic.
The wild life is as diverse as the people in the Florida Keys. Just driving along anywhere you will find iguanas, they are such a nuisance and over populated animal in this area.
The Keys is the northernmost range of the American crocodile, which is endemic from South America to Panama, north to the Florida Keys.
This surprised us the most, Key Deer, they are not afraid of people. They will walk up to you, especially if you have food. Although, they are consider an endangered specie, so you are not suppose to feed or pet them.
When planning a trip, take a look at this book, it has great places to visit. Great for kids of all ages!!
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