Loving the Longest Bridge!

I've changed the photo to show both the old bridge and the new one.

Seven-Mile Bridge is the vision of one man

The 7-Mile Bridge, also known as the Overseas Highway, is one of the ten longest bridges in the world. It connects Key West to the rest of Florida and has to be seen to be believed.

All the more amazing is that the original bridge, completed in 1912, is still standing beside the new one, which was completed in 1983.

Despite three hurricanes in four years, Henry Morrison Flagler forged ahead, using two-thirds of his huge fortune to complete what was then referred to as the "Flagler Viaduct" or the "Key West Extension." Workers on the bridge were paid $1.25 a day, which must have been good money back then, in order to lure workers out over the ocean like that.

Flagler, the co-founder of Standard Oil (with John D. Rockefeller) retired from his oil company to build hotels and railroads along the east coast of Florida. As early as 1895, the residents of Miami wanted to name the young city after Flagler, but he refused. He built what was then the largest hotel in the world in Miami. The man seemed to be obsessed with Florida, determined to turn it into the American version of the French Riviera.

Flagler pushed through the 3-year construction of the Key West Railroad Extension, despite hurricanes in 1906, 1909, and 1910. This original bridge was 35,815 feet long, had 335 steel girders, 9,000 feet of concrete arch viaducts, and a 253-foot swing truss drawbridge to let ships through. It was longer than the current bridge.

Henry Flagler's death in 1913 did not bode well for his railroad operation, which went bankrupt in 1932.

The bridge was irreparably damaged in the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and was subsequently sold for $640,000 to the U.S. Government, which converted it for car traffic. The railroad tracks were taken up, painted white, and attached as guard rails. This renovation was done by 1938.

Flagler's bridge met its final foe, when Hurricane Donna swept through in 1960, damaging the bridge irreparably.

The current bridge was begun in 1978 and completed in 1983, running almost parallel to Flagler's old bridge, which is now open to foot traffic as far as Pigeon Key, the tiny island where Flagler kept a line crew in the old days. The section of bridge next to Pigeon Key was blown up, and a short extension was built to the island. It appears that the footpath is maintained for traffic on that side of the bridge.

The history of this amazing accomplishment is intertwined with the history of the man who built it. Henry Flagler was larger than life, often called a ruthless "robber baron," a self-made millionaire and oil tycoon, the son of an itinerant preacher, who started his life penniless. John D. Rockefeller credited Flagler with the ideas which made Standard Oil a monopoly.

One has only to travel the 7-Mile Bridge to stand in awe of the man who could challenge the forces of nature and build a road across an ocean.