Seven Mile Bridge - Pigeon Key, Florida

Seven Mile Bridge

Pigeon Key, Florida

US 1 - Mile markers 40 to 47

Johnny and I drove along US 1 across the original Seven Mile Bridge several times on our trips and it was usually a scary but beautiful ride.  Other cars or makeshift campers coming at you on the narrow roadway were difficult to navigate.  Each one seemed to pass inches from the side of our car.  People tended to drive in the middle until getting ready to go past the approaching car then would swerve into their lane to pass you.

Completed in 1912, the old structure, initially a railroad bridge, was known as the “Eighth Wonder of the World’’ because even attempting to build something so ambitious over miles of open water and a soft bottom in a harsh tropical climate seemed a bit nutty. This amazing ribbon of steel and concrete forever changed the history of the Florida Keys and linked the mainland of Florida to Key West.

The original bridge crossing was less friendly, narrow and harrowing, requiring concentration and a good grip on the steering wheel as you left Marathon Key on your way to Key West.  Suddenly you found yourself driving over the ocean, seven miles of it, green water all around but smart drivers kept eyes on the oncoming traffic instead of nature. The bridge seemed too constricted for two passing cars.

Henry Morrison Flagler, a craggy, white-haired business genius who made his fortune in the oil business, hadn’t gotten rich by being cautious.  In the 19th century he came to Florida, built a hotel in St. Augustine and founded the Florida East Coast Railway.  By 1896, his train was going all the way to Miami.  That wasn’t good enough.  He wanted his railroad to go another 100 miles or so south – to Key West.   “Flagler’s Folly’’ is what a lot of folks called it.  “Just watch me,’’ was Flagler’s credo.

Starting in 1905, he spent $30 million of his own money to lay track and build dozens of bridges, hiring 4,000 workers for the small fortune of $1.50 a day.  They had to wade through swamps where boots sank into the mud as crocodiles slipped off the banks.  Some workers died of heatstroke and snakebite.  Everybody was bitten by mosquitoes.  Folks were chronically hungry and thirsty.

In 1908, the workers reached Marathon Key where about seven miles of open water lay ahead. Flagler’s civil engineers had to invent new technology as they went along.  At their disposal were two steamships, tugboats, paddle wheelers, dredges, launches and a catamaran.  Flagler sent away to England for a kind of cement capable of drying underwater.  Divers wearing helmets positioned underwater structures.  Barges swung in the current as workers tried to keep their balance.

They slept in tents and in bunkhouses Flagler built on Pigeon Key, about two miles from shore. The bunkhouses are still there.  A ferry will take you to the island and a guide will show you around. Do it for the history of the bridge and a feel looking in each direction of where the bridge went across the open water.

You’ll learn that on Jan. 28, 1916, the train rumbled to a stop in Key West.  Flagler, 82, stepped out of his private car with his young wife.  “Now I can die happy,” Flagler whispered to a friend.  “My dream is fulfilled.’’

Dreams die hard in the Keys.  The death of Flagler’s railroad happened on Labor Day in 1935.  It began when the barometer started dropping.  Nobody knew that the most powerful hurricane to ever hit the United States was on its way.  It swept across Matecumbe Key, in the Central Keys, that evening.  Officials from the railroad had dispatched a train to evacuate residents and 800 World War I veterans who were living in tents and working on a new road near the railroad tracks.

The train arrived too late.  The Flagler railroad was lost too.

Not every bit, but enough that the Florida East Coast Railway decided to end service to the Keys. It sold the railroad line to the U.S. Government.  A roadway was placed over the surviving railroad bed and broken track became the guardrails on the new motorist bridges.  The Overseas Highway, as it still is called, opened in 1938.

Today, the Old Seven Mile Bridge (the original Knights Key Bridge) to Pigeon Key is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  It has served as a world famous fishing pier, jogging, and walking route, and of course the major path to Pigeon Key.

Since 1982, a new Seven Mile Bridge section was completed to accommodate modern traffic and taller ships.

Johnny and I, on one of our trips, drove over the bridge to a beautiful sunset and getting to the other side at Bahia Honda island pulled over and camped for the night so we could drive on down to Key West the following morning.  Back then, there was no State Park only several roadside tables to stop for a picnic before moving on.  There in plain view was a “no camping” sign; so naturally, we pitched our tent within view of the sign several feet away from the bluish green water’s edge.  Another photo opportunity as we were two rebels in those days.

We made dinner, sandwich’s and heated pork and beans on our Coleman stove.  Dinner in heaven with a beautiful sunset, changing colors as the day turned into night’s purples and blacks.  No lights around so the stars were bright as the heavens lit up and the sounds of the waves crashing along the shoreline.  A gentle breeze kept the bugs at bay and we slept soundly on this night in paradise.  In the morning we got up and swam in the Atlantic Ocean for a while then crossed the road under the bridge and swam in the Gulf of Mexico all in the matter of minutes.  Two oceans, fun times, and two young adventurers heading into old Key West.

On our way to the “Conch Republic” of Key West.

Ice