A highway over the ocean

Officially designated the Florida Overseas Highway, the two-lane ribbon of the final 126 miles of U.S. Route 1 is a wonder of engineering. It leapfrogs along the chain of low, flat keys that dangle off the Sunshine State's southeastern tip, with 43 bridges that arch across stretches of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico up to seven miles wide. Milepost 0, either the end of the road or the beginning, depending on your point of view, is at the corner of Truman Avenue and Whitehead Street, just a few blocks from Ernest Hemingway's Key West home.

Completed in 1938, the original highway paralleled the route of a remarkable rail line built by transportation tycoon Henry Flagler in 1912. Flagler's vision was to link the keys with the mainland, providing easier, faster commerce to and from America's most southerly port, as well as to convey a tide of winter visitors who came to enjoy the abundance of sand, sea and sunshine.

The idea worked well enough for two decades, but by the late 1920s, Key West's primary industries had faded. The Depression greatly diminished its tourism trade, and in 1935, a hurricane blew away much of Flagler's rail line. Disastrous weather is nothing new in these parts.