Knight's Key Dock, Pigeon Key and the Seven Mile Bridge

Just 40 days left until we head back to the Keys again!

One of the things that constantly amazes me about the Keys is how much has happened there over the last hundred years.  Thousands of people drive through the Keys every day blissfully unaware of the history surrounding them.  Towns that existed and vanished without a trace.  Roads and highways, railroads, hotels, all gone.  Yet at the same time much still exists if you know where to look.  Besides the obvious, like the old railroad bridges, there are still plenty of old roads, docks and remnants of towns and buildings. 

Knight's Key Dock is a perfect example of a huge development that has competely vanished without a trace and very few people even know it even existed.

When construction began on the Key West Extension of the FEC in 1905, it did not start in the north and simply continue until it reached Key West.  In fact, there were, at times, over 50 different construction sites going on at one time, with supplies and material being delivered to construction camps and depots all throughout the Keys.  Most of the construction through 1908 was focused on the northern half of the railroad due to the difficulty of moving equipment and supplies to the distant southern end of the island chain.  By 1908, the entire northern half of the railroad had been completed through Key Vaca to its southern terminus at Knight's Key.

In the meantime, knowing construction of the bridge between Knight's Key and Little Duck Key, a span of seven miles, would take some time to complete, Flagler began construction in 1906 of a deepwater dock in the channel southwest of Knight's Key.  This dock, about 4,000 feet offshore from Knight's Key, became known as Knight's Key Dock.  Upon its completion in 1908, along with the construction of the railroad trestle from Knight's Key out to the dock, it served as the southern terminus of the railroad from 1908 until the completion of the Seven Mile Bridge in 1912. 

The Knight's Key Dock was a formidable structure.  It consisted of a huge platform in nearly 30 feet of water with deepwater dockage on both sides.  Two tracks served the dock allowing the loading or unloading of two ships simultaneously.  From February 1908 to January 1912, the dock served the Florida East Coast Railway and the Peninsular and Occidental Steamship company, which provided steamship service to Key West and Havana.  Two departures and two arrivals daily to and from Miami served the dock.

Map of Knight's Key Dock showing the
approximate railroad location ca. 1908-1912

In addition, though, the dock also served as a base of construction for the initial portion of the Seven Mile Bridge from Knight's Key to Pigeon Key.  The Knight's Key Dock complex consisted not only of the docks and loading facilities, but there was also a construction hotel and at least two large warehouses, all built on wooden pilings 4000 feet out to sea.  Knight's Key Dock, alone, was an engineering marvel of its time.

Beginning in 1909, construction crews began building a series of concrete pilings, one after another in a seeming "marathon"of construction.  It took three years to build 335 concrete piers and the steel trusses between them five miles, across Moser Channel to within two miles of Little Duck Key.  The last two miles, over shallower water, were built with concrete arches like the Long Key viaduct to complete the Seven Mile Bridge.  During its construction, the bridge actually crossed over the trestle to Knight's Key Dock.  The section of the Seven Mile Bridge over the Knight's Key trestle was the last to be completed, just one day before the opening of the railroad to Key West, as train service to and from the dock would have been disrupted by the track crossover (see map).  However, on January 21, 1912, the final section of the Seven Mile Bridge was bolted over the Knight's Key Trestle, and train service began the very next day with Flagler's arrival in Key West.

No one is certain whatever became of Knight's Key Dock.  Once the Seven Mile Bridge was completed over the trestle, the dock became unusable, and rumor is it was burned to the waterline.  Remnants of the dock and trestle still exist at the bottom of the channel, but no visible trace remains of this busy little transportation hub of 1908-1912.

Pigeon Key

As you travel the Seven Mile Bridge, you'll see an island off to your right about two miles into the bridge (heading toward Key West).  The old Seven Mile Bridge travels right over it.  This is Pigeon Key, and following the arrival of the railroad during bridge construction, it served as yet another construction camp.  At one time over 200 workers were housed on the island in four dormitory-style houses.

Following the completion of the railroad, the construction camp on Pigeon Key was converted to a maintenance camp for bridge maintenance and for the tender of the swing span of the bridge over Moser channel.  This span could spin 90 degrees to allow boat traffic through Moser Channel.  At this time there were several homes and a General Store on the island.  There was even a school and a post office here in the mid-1920's.

Pigeon Key's next role was the base of operations for search and rescue missions following the Labor Day hurricane of 1935.  Following this, the island was part of the FEC holdings that the state acquired when the railroad went under.  The state promptly set about converting the railroad to a highway, and Pigeon Key also served as the headquarters of this operation.

Following the completion of the highway, Pigeon Key was the center of operation for the toll commission that collected tolls for the Overseas Highway.  This operation abruptly ended in scandal in 1954 when the toll takers were found spending tens of thousands of dollars on luxurious parties, food and a swimming pool on Pigeon Key.

The island sustained significant damage in 1960 from Hurricane Donna, and two buildings were completely destroyed.  The rest sat vacant for a while until the University of Miami leased the island from the state for a Marine Lab during the 70's and 80's.

In 1979, construction began on the new Seven Mile Bridge parallel and just to the south of the old bridge.  As the new bridge neared completion in 1981, the swing span of the old bridge was damaged in a traffic accident and the new bridge was accelerated to completion, opening in 1982.

Today, the buildings on Pigeon Key have been restored and it is now on the National Register of Historic Places.  The old bridge is open from Knight's Key to Pigeon Key, but you can not drive.  You can walk or ride a bicycle out to Pigeon Key.  You can also walk down below both the old and new bridges where you can see how the old bridge was built and converted.  The old bridge was only wide enough for one track.  When it was converted to a highway bridge, the rails were pulled up, cross bars laid across the trusses to widen them, then the road constructed on top of the trusses.  The original railroad rails were reused as guardrails.


Conversion of the Seven Mile Bridge from railroad to automotive traffic

Seven Mile Bridge Today

As you cross the Seven Mile Bridge today, be careful as it's still a relatively narrow (by today's standards) bridge.  The bridge runs from MM 47 to MM 40, and is the 16th of the 42 bridges on the Overseas Highway.  Around MM 45, you'll see Pigeon Key off to your right.  At MM 44, you'll see the opening in the old bridge where the swing span used to be.  If you've ever seen the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "True Lies", the climactic bridge scene was shot on the Seven Mile Bridge here, and a portion of the old Seven Mile Bridge was blown up in the movie.

Around Mile Marker 42, you'll see the old bridge change over from concrete piers to concrete arches.  This part of the bridge, between here and MM 40.5 is in serious disrepair.  Around MM 41.5, you'll notice a very large tree growing directly out of the old bridge - no clue how it grows in the concrete.  But perhaps an even bigger mystery is how this tree manages to get decorated every year at Christmas time, despite this section of the bridge being completely inaccessible due to sections of the old bridge being cut out.  The last half mile of the old bridge, from MM 40.5 to MM 40 is restored and is a fishing pier today. 



Henry Flagler and the Railroad

There are just 44 days until our next trip to Key West.  I've been working my way down through the Keys the past couple of weeks in my writing and I'm getting back into another part of the Keys that is among my favorites.  I am very much interested in the history of the Keys and the Florida East Coast Railroad.  By comparison to the Upper Keys and the Lower Keys, the Middle Keys are somewhat boring to me.  The history is not as rich, and from a traveler's perspective there is not as much to do or see as in the Upper Keys or Lower Keys.  To me, although I've vacationed in Marathon before, the Middle Keys have mostly been a place to either pass through or to set up camp as a matter of convenience.  Sort of like Henry Flagler did from 1908-1912.

Before we get into talking about this area though, let's talk a little bit about Henry Flagler.  Outside of Florida, Henry Flagler is not nearly as well-known as many of his contemporary industrialists and captains of industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Most people know the names - John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, J.P. Morgan.  Even Cornelius Vanderbilt and George Pullman probably enjoy more fame outside of Florida than Henry Flagler.

Flagler was born in upstate New York in 1830.  Despite never receiving higher than an 8th grade education, he worked a series of retail jobs and eventually used family assets to found a salt company in Michigan.  Flagler was the son of Elizabeth Morrison, who was the widow of a wealthy businessman named David Harkness from Ohio.  David Harkness had a son, Stephen, from his first marriage, which made Henry Flagler and Stephen Harkness stepbrothers.

After the failure of his salt venture in Michigan, Flagler moved to Bellevue, Ohio where he became a grain salesman.  Also selling grain in Bellevue was John D. Rockefeller, who befriended Flagler.  After the civil war, Rockefeller left the grain business, moved to Cleveland and started an oil refinery.  Needing some investment, he approached Flagler, who secured $100,000 from the Harkness family.  In return, the Harkness family appointed Flagler their representative in the new venture.  The new venture proved lucrative and soon became the Standard Oil company.  Standard Oil quickly became a monopoly and made Rockefeller, Flagler, Harkness and their partners among the richest men in history.

By 1876, Flagler's first wife. Mary, had become very ill and Flagler's doctor advised they move from New York and Ohio to a warmer climate.  Henry and Mary Flagler spent much of the next five years traveling back and forth to Jacksonville, Florida until Mary died in 1881.  Flagler wasted no time marrying Ida Alice Shourds, who had been his Mary's nurse toward the end of her life.  For a honeymoon, Flagler and Ida traveled to St. Augustine, where Flagler tried to buy the Zorayda Castle (then the Villa Zorayda hotel) for his new wife.  He was unsuccessful, but the Florida bug had bitten him and bitten him hard.

Three years later, in 1884, Flagler stepped down from operation of Standard Oil and returned to St. Augustine.  He made Franklin Smith, owner and builder of the Zorayda Castle, an offer to become his partner in a new hotel venture.  Smith couldn't raise the money, so Flagler ended up building it himself - the enormous (for its time) Ponce De Leon Hotel.  Despite the time period (1884-1888), the Ponce De Leon was wired for electricity - due, in no small part, to Flagler's personal friendship with Thomas Edison.  The hotel still stands today and is part of Flagler College.

Now entrenched in Florida, Flagler envisioned an American Riviera stretching down the Florida Coast, but was unhappy with the transportation system in the state.  With his enormous amount of money, he purchased a number of small railroads and consolidated them into the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC).  Thus began his march down the coast, building rails, bridges and hotels along the way.  By 1890, his railroad had arrived in Daytona Beach and he had begun construction of a personal residence in St. Augustine.  By 1894, he arrived in West Palm Beach, building the Royal Poinciana Hotel, and essentially founded Palm Beach by building the Breakers Hotel on the coast.

Flagler intended to stop in West Palm Beach in 1894, but that same year extreme cold in the area killed off the citrus crop and caused Flagler to rethink this decision.  Legend has it that Miss Julia Tuttle (she of causeway fame) sent Flagler some fresh citrus from an outpost on the Miami River in 1894, as proof that the cold did not extend that far.  She offered him land on which to build a hotel in exchange for bringing the railroad south to serve her fruit-trading business.

By 1896, Flagler had reached the shores of Biscayne Bay, and true to form, began construction of the Royal Palm hotel.  When the city incorporated in 1896, the original proposal was to name the city "Flagler", but Flagler would not hear anything of it, and it was he that suggested the city be named after the Indian word for the river that flowed through it.  Thus was born the city of Miami.

Around the same time, his wife Ida was institutionalized for mental illness.  Flagler had long been suspected of having an affair with Mary Kenan, and in 1901, Florida made mental illness grounds for divorce largely based on lobbying efforts from non other than Flagler himself and his connections with the Florida judicial circuit.  Flagler promptly divorced Ida, married Mary Kenan, and moved to Palm Beach in a mansion called "Whitehall" that he built as a wedding present to his new wife.

Flagler mostly stayed put for the next 4 years, but he had his eye even further southward.  The Spanish-American war saw much shipment of troops, material and supplies from Florida to Cuba, and the United States was also heavily involved in a plan to build a canal through Panama to open up trade from the east coast to the Pacific.  Seeing an opportunity to establish a deep water port close to Cuba and Panama, Flagler began planning for the extension of his railroad to Key West.  Many thought that Flagler had totally lost his marbles at this point, as the idea was thought impossible and downright crazy by most.  But when asked how he intended to build a railroad across 100 miles of open water, Flagler simply replied "Easy - first you build one concrete arch, then another, and another, and pretty soon you'll be in Key West."

Location of the FEC Railroad in Key West

Flagler did just that.  By 1905 he had engineers scouting routes through extreme south Florida -  considering routes through Jewfish Creek, Card Sound, and even an ambitious route to Cape Sable and across 25 miles of open water.  Eventually, the Jewfish Creek route was selected and construction began.  By 1908, the railroad had terminated in Knight's Key.  The plan was to complete construction by 1913, but construction was accelerated when Flagler's health started failing and was finally completed on January 21, 1912, and the first train rolled into Key West the very next day.  Frail and nearly blind, Flagler arrived in Key West on that first train in his luzurious personal car, the "Rambler".  There was much celebration in Key West with dignitaries and schoolchildren greeting the train's arrival.  Flagler is reported to have said "I can hear the children, but I cannot see them," and later, "Now I can die in peace."

Key West is largely what it is today thanks to Flagler.  Even the landscape of Key West was forever changed by the railroad.  As the railroad approached Key West, Flagler had grandiose plans for a very large rail terminal in the city.  When Flagler was advised that there simply was not enough land in Key West on which to build his expansive terminal, he replied, in typical Flagler fashion, "Well then BUILD some."  Today the Trumbo Point area exists because of the many tons of fill that Flagler's engineer's dumped there to build the land upon which his terminal was constructed.