USA: The floating road that crosses 44 islands in Florida – 06/08/2023 – Tourism

Seagulls populate the sky as I traverse miles of glittering water somewhere between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.

The sky merges with the teal blue sea, which turns turquoise as its depth decreases, close to the channels between the coral and limestone islands.

A blue immensity extends as far as the eye can see.

As I adjust my sunglasses, I catch a glimpse of sudden movement out of the corner of my eye: a bottlenose dolphin.

The dolphin was with his friends and the group soon performed a water ballet, leaping in graceful arcs before plunging back into the waves.

Fishing boats sailed slowly around me and I wanted to cast a line, but it would have been difficult while driving my car at 50 mph along the highway.

Traveling from Miami to the island of Key West, Florida (USA), was not always as carefree as it is today.

In the early 20th century, the only way to get to the southernmost point of the United States was by boat, which took a full day, depending on the weather and tides.

But thanks to an astounding engineering marvel—the Overseas Highway, 182 kilometers long at the southern tip of the United States, spanning 44 tropical islands with 42 bridges—I seem to be floating along a necklace of sandy islands and mangroves, while I drive to the point where North America and the Caribbean meet.

railway dream

The Overseas Highway actually started out as the Over-Sea Railroad. The railroad was created by visionary entrepreneur Henry Morrison Flagler (1830-1913), known as “the Father of Modern Florida”.

In 1870, Flagler co-founded the Standard Oil Company, alongside business tycoon John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937). The company would go on to be one of the largest and most powerful in the world in the early 20th century.

After visiting Florida and recognizing the tourist potential of the “Sunshine State”, Flagler invested much of his money in the region, building luxury resorts that transformed one of the poorest states in the United States into a winter paradise for the travelers of the American Golden Age, coming from the northeast of the country.

But there was no way to get guests to Flagler’s luxurious resorts, which were in remote locations.

To that end, in 1885, he connected a series of railroads scattered along Florida’s Atlantic coast, linking Jacksonville, in the far north of the state, with Miami, near the southern tip.

Miami would have been the end of the line. But when the United States began building the Panama Canal in 1904, Flagler realized that there was immense potential in Key West — the closest piece of American land to the Canal and the deepest port in the southeastern United States.

At the time, the site was already a thriving and thriving hub, thanks to the cigar industries, sea sponge extraction and fishing. In fact, Key West was Florida’s largest city until 1900.

But the island’s remote location made it difficult and expensive to move goods to the north of the state.

Flagler then decided to extend the railroad 251 km south to Key West. Most of the distance would be covered over open water, crossing the Florida Keys.

The construction of the so-called Key West branch line was considered impossible by many of its contemporaries. His vision was dubbed “Flagler’s Madness” by critics.

Between 1905 and 1912, three hurricanes hit the construction site, killing over a hundred workers. But the tireless Flagler forged ahead.

The construction took seven years and cost US$ 50 million (US$ 1.56 billion in today’s values, or around R$ 7.8 billion).

Four thousand African-American, European and Bahamian immigrants had to face alligators, snakes and scorpions, in severe working conditions, to build the railroad.

The railway was finally completed in 1912 and considered the “eighth wonder of the world”.

On the maiden voyage, a steam locomotive arrived in Key West, bringing Flagler from Miami. At the age of 82, he jumped out of his private luxury carriage and reportedly whispered to a friend, “I can die happy. My dream has come true.”

The luxury wagon used by Flagler is currently on display at the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, Florida.

“The fact that Flagler financed [mais de US$ 30 milhões] out of pocket at that time was quite remarkable,” according to Florida historian Brad Bertelli.

“Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates could have done it today. Elon Musk, with his SpaceX, is perhaps the best modern comparison.”

The railroad operated until 1935, when the deadliest hurricane in a century swept away miles of track.

Instead of being rebuilt, Flagler’s masterpiece entered a new phase to embrace America’s newfound love of automobiles.

In 1938, the US government decided to build one of the longest highways over water in the world, using Flagler’s seemingly indestructible bridges, which could withstand winds of up to 320 km/h.

Workers asphalted the tracks to accommodate the cars, and the Overseas Highway forever transformed the far-flung Florida Keys so that it could become the thriving tourist destination it is today.

The journey and attractions along the way

More than a century after the railroad opened, 20 of the original 42 bridges still carry travelers from Miami to Key West.

The trip can be made in under four hours, but stopping along the way is part of the fun. A series of fascinating, off-the-beaten-path stops help visitors better appreciate this engineering marvel and its lasting impacts on the archipelago.

Located 111 km south of Miami, Key Largo is the northernmost island in the Florida Keys and the first major stop on the route.

Alligators, snakes and other water-dwelling creatures may have terrified Flagler’s workers, but today, travelers come to Key Largo (self-proclaimed “diving capital of the world”) to marvel at its abundant marine life.

The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park attract divers willing to explore North America’s only living coral reef.

Seagrasses provide a key habitat for fish, manatees and sea turtles. But the main attraction is the Cristo do Abyss—a 2.74-meter-tall submerged bronze statue of Jesus Christ that has been attracting visitors to swim around its outstretched arms since 1965.

After you’ve dried off, head to the community of Islamorada, halfway between Miami and Key West. There was one of the Over-Sea Railroad stations.

In Islamorada is the Keys History and Discovery Center, where you can watch a 35-minute documentary showcasing the construction of the railroad and its many obstacles.

The museum also displays artifacts from the golden age of trains, including tableware from dining cars and an original menu from the era that offered sirloin steak for $1.60.

We continued the journey. Between 1908 and 1912, about 400 workers lived in a camp on Pigeon Key, a tiny coral island 56 km south of Islamorada. They built the most difficult part of the railroad: the famous Seven Mile Bridge (popularly, the “Old Seven”, in English) — 11 km connecting the central islands to the southern Florida Keys.

In 1909, civil engineer William J. Krome (1876-1929) was given the daunting task of crossing seven miles of open water.

Construction crews worked 24 hours a day, installing more than 700 support pillars in the middle of the ocean, sometimes as much as nine meters below sea level, to build the longest bridge on the railroad.

They were aided by divers, who helped create underwater concrete pedestals to support the weight of the railway line.

The remains of the old construction camp can be visited by taking the train across the old bridge from Marathon Town to Pigeon Key.

The stretch is 3.5 km long and is the only accessible part of the original bridge. It reopened in January 2022, after a renovation that took five years and cost US$ 44 million (about R$ 220 million).

Closed to traffic (except for the little train), the previously deteriorating bridge is now a safe track for bicycles and rollerblading, 20 meters above the crystal clear sea water, or for observing marine life such as turtles and nurse sharks.

Currently, only four permanent residents reside on Pigeon Key. The island, with two hectares of surface, is now a National Historic Landmark of the United States. There, mainly solar energy is used.

Pigeon Key also houses a museum that offers guided tours of several constructions that once housed workers and tells what the daily life of the teams that built the Seven Mile Bridge was like.

Arriving at the southern end

Travelers who today travel the full length of the Overseas Highway know that the journey ends when they see Ground Zero on the US-1 Highway in Key West.

The black and white buoy marks the southernmost point in the United States, meaning visitors are now closer to Cuba (145 km away to the south) than they are to Miami (212 km to the north).

Here, many tourists quickly head to the city’s main drag, Duval Street, or the Ernest Hemingway House Museum. But it’s worth taking a look at the Sails to Rails Museum – small but packed with information.

The museum chronicles 500 years of Key West history and shows how this 18 km² tropical island evolved from a pirate’s paradise to a commercial hub and tourist destination famous for its laid-back atmosphere.

Railroad-era artefacts include the payswagon—a sort of bench on wheels to provide wages to railroad workers. The exhibit entitled Eighth Wonder of the Modern World shows the evolution of the railroad and explains how each obstacle was overcome, pushing the technology available at the beginning of the 20th century to its limits.

“If I were to single out the single most important event in the history of the Florida Keys, it would undoubtedly be the construction of the Over-Sea Railroad from [Henry M.] Flagler,” says Florida Keys writer and historian Dori Convertito.

“With his vision, dedication, entrepreneurship and foresight of the future, the Florida Keys was connected to the American continent for the first time. The commercial and commuting advantages for island residents and visitors are undeniable”, he said.

“She forever influenced the trajectory of the Florida Keys economy and opened the door to the tourism industry we have today.”