The southernmost stretch of U.S. Freeway 1, operating greater than 110 miles from mainland Florida all through the Keys to Key West, has earned many names over time. It’s been referred to as the Florida Keys Abroad Freeway. The Freeway That Goes to Sea. And 15 years in the past it earned the best to be referred to as an All-American Street, the best nationwide designation a roadway can obtain.
Fifteen years in the past, the Florida Keys Abroad Freeway was designated an All-American Street. Right here, the brand new signal is positioned alongside the famed roadway. (Picture by Andy Newman, Florida Keys Information Bureau)
However for these of us who love the Keys, whether or not as residents or common guests, the freeway has an easier and extra elemental designation: it’s the highway house.
Heading south from mainland Florida, the freeway leads right into a world of seemingly infinite water and sky. On the left, the Atlantic Ocean unrolls to a blue horizon; on the best lies Florida Bay and, farther south, the Gulf of Mexico.
From the mainland to Key West, an astonishing 42 bridges leapfrog between islands. One in every of them, the Seven Mile Bridge at Marathon, stretches 6.79 miles throughout open water — the centerpiece of the route extensively often known as a “bucket-list” drive.
But the Seven Mile Bridge wasn’t at all times a freeway bridge, and the Abroad Freeway wasn’t at all times a highway.
It started as a railroad, the brainchild of millionaire Henry Flagler, who envisioned a prepare route connecting all of the Florida Keys and mainland Florida. Flagler impressed a military of males to spend seven years setting up the railroad’s bridges and land-based tracks, and in 1912 the primary prepare pulled into Key West.
However after solely two-plus many years of carrying freight and rich vacationers, a lot of the railroad was badly broken in a 1935 hurricane. Three years later the Abroad Freeway debuted, constructed on a basis that included among the unique railway spans.
The outdated railroad bridge at Bahia Honda State Park — a portion of it proven right here — was as soon as a part of the Abroad Freeway and is now listed on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations. (Picture by Andy Newman, Florida Keys Information Bureau)
In 1982, 37 unique bridges together with the Seven Mile Bridge had been changed with wider ones (warmly welcomed by these of us with reminiscences of driving the scarily slim outdated spans). A few third of the unique ones had been eliminated throughout the venture, however three of these remaining — the Lengthy Key, Bahia Honda and Seven Mile bridges — are listed on the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations.
Touring down the Abroad Freeway, drivers can see most of the outdated bridges operating alongside the newer ones. And all of us who journey the highway recurrently have our favourite stretches and sights — talisman vistas that provide a welcome foretaste of house on the southward drive.
For instance, once I attain Islamorada within the Higher Keys, I can’t assist smiling as I cross a very lovely cluster of latest oceanfront houses. Recognizing the pocket-sized island of Pigeon Key, nestled beneath the Previous Seven Mile Bridge, conjures up daydreams about residing in considered one of its tiny restored cottages.
Farther alongside the Previous Seven Mile Bridge, defying pure logic, a bunch of scraggly bushes sprouted on the weather-beaten pavement years in the past — and one way or the other managed to outlive. For me, they’ve develop into mascots (particularly the biggest, domestically often known as Fred).
Fred and his companion tree flourish on the Previous Seven Mile Bridge, a welcome sight to drivers navigating the Florida Keys Abroad Freeway. (Picture courtesy of Howard Livingston)
In actual fact, each time I cross the newer bridge, I look anxiously over at Fred and every of his shrub-like cohorts to verify they’re nonetheless hanging on.
Simply earlier than Large Pine lies one other of the freeway’s prime vistas. At Bahia Honda State Park, a portion of the outdated Bahia Honda Bridge arches up in opposition to the sky, a stark and throat-catchingly lovely reminder of the Keys’ previous glories.
To earn All-American Street standing underneath the Nationwide Scenic Byways program, a highway will need to have nationally important archeological, cultural, historic, pure, leisure and/or scenic qualities — and should possess options that don’t exist anyplace else, making it a customer vacation spot in itself.
The Abroad Freeway definitely matches the invoice. It was the primary Florida highway to realize All-American standing, and the designation was — and stays at the moment — prestigious certainly.
However regardless of how spectacular that honor, it will possibly’t eclipse the standing the Abroad Freeway already possesses within the hearts of Keys residents and those that want they had been. It’s our freeway, our connection to one another and the surface world — and at all times, our highway house.
