INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS BROUGHT A NEW ERA 

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Constructing State Highway 4A, the unique Abroad Freeway, circa 1926. JERRY WILKINSON COLLECTION/Contributed

A number of months in the past, I used to be driving dwelling from the Fort Lauderdale airport. It was late afternoon after I exited the turnpike and rolled into Florida Metropolis. The sunshine at Palm Avenue flashed yellow and turned purple. I ended and stared out by way of the windshield. The sky out over the Everglades was starting to melt and alter colours. 

The stoplight turned inexperienced, and I put the Jeep into gear. The highway by way of Florida Metropolis is known as South Dixie Freeway. As you drive down it, between Palm Avenue and the Final Probability Saloon, the mainland begins to slide away and the Everglades takes over. The saloon seems on the precise. On the left, simply earlier than you get there, is a flip lane. Take the left, and also you’ll journey alongside the unique path of the Abroad Freeway.

As soon as upon a time, it was the one method to drive out and in of the Keys. Constructing the highway, even agreeing to develop it, was a gradual course of. The rumbles from island residents grew louder after Henry Flagler confirmed up. For a lot of pioneer households who arrived within the county’s adolescence and continued to reach within the early years of the 20th century, farming was a lifestyle. Within the latter half of the 1800s, there was a time when the pineapple was king within the Florida Keys. Many of the pineapples shipped across the nation have been grown right here. 

It wasn’t nearly pineapples however coconuts, tomatoes, melons, limes, onions and grapefruits. Earlier than Flagler determined to construct his railroad, all of that produce was shipped out of the Keys aboard boats. The islands have been boat cultures. Life within the Keys relied on the water, not only for exporting items however to carry mail, ice, espresso, sugar, associates, household, information and knowledge.

The introduction of the Key West Extension of Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway reworked life alongside the island chain. His practice moved its lifeline from the shoreline and away from a reliance on ships, climate patterns and the profitable navigation of the Straits of Florida. It was moved, for essentially the most half, to the inside of the islands. 

Whereas the Over-Sea Railroad didn’t arrive in Key West till 1912, every day rail service was established between Miami and Knights Key in 1908. Knights Secret’s a part of the gathering of islands acknowledged as Marathon within the Center Keys and is the final island crossed earlier than driving over the Seven Mile Bridge. Twice a day, the practice was rocking and rolling with a full head of steam up and down the Higher and Center Keys.

It was additionally 1908 when farmers within the Higher Keys started voicing to the county their want for roads to assist them adapt to the change. The packing homes boxing up the fruits of their labor for delivery have been shifting nearer to the environment friendly new possibility supplied by Flagler’s practice. Native farmers wanted higher methods to achieve them. Whereas communities did what they might to pave some higher method to transport their produce, it was not till 1917 that the county started responding to the necessity of higher roads up and down the island chain. The county issued $100,000 in bonds to construct roads on Key Largo and Huge Pine, and a bridge linking Inventory Island to Key West. 

It was not simply farmers asking for roads. The Miami Motor Membership needed to supply their members a “suburban” fishing floor within the Keys. In 1919, individuals lobbying on their behalf labored to allocate funds to develop roads and a bridge that linked the mainland to Key Largo. In 1922, $300,000 was put aside for roadwork in Key West, the Decrease Keys and initiatives that benefited Higher Keys farmers, although not for a bridge between Key Largo and the mainland. 

The large infrastructure funding got here in 1926. Monroe County issued a $2.5 million bond for initiatives that related (roughly) mainland Florida to Key West. Included within the funds was a picket bridge connecting Key Largo to the mainland. On the Dade County aspect, commissioners agreed to finance 11 miles of highway from Florida Metropolis to what grew to become the Card Sound Bridge at Little Card Level. 

Formally, the brand new conduit was known as State Highway 4A; it was additionally touted because the Abroad Freeway. The celebrated grand opening was on Jan. 25, 1928. The freeway regarded nothing prefer it does at the moment. In 1928, the highway was incomplete and had a 40-mile hole between Decrease Matecumbe and No Title keys that was bridged by vehicle ferries. When the second model of the freeway opened in 1938, the ferries have been eradicated by a collection of vehicle bridges linking the Higher and Decrease Keys. 

It wasn’t till the third model of the Abroad Freeway opened in 1944 that it started to resemble the highway we drive alongside at the moment. Do you have to select to forgo the left flip close to the Final Probability Saloon and proceed straight, you’ll arrive on the 18-Mile Stretch. The highest of the stretch, round MM 126, continues to be the South Dixie Freeway. The inexperienced and white indicators posted alongside the aspect of the highway depend down the miles it takes to achieve the center of Key West. Appropriately, they’re known as mile markers, and you need to go quite a lot of of them earlier than your tires begin slapping the asphalt on the Abroad Freeway.

It occurs at about MM 115, on the county line, the place Miami-Dade and the South Dixie Freeway finish and Monroe County and the Abroad Freeway start. Whichever model of the Abroad Freeway you select to take, the unique or the fashionable route, you’ll come to a bridge resulting in Key Largo, the car gateway to the Florida Keys. Welcome.

In 2025, I’ll be exploring the Abroad Freeway, its historical past, sights and factors I discover fascinating. 

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