Pigeon Key

I am spending my last week in the Keys ticking off all the last few things I really wanted to see before I left.  Today I visited Pigeon Key located just south of Marathon, along the 7 mile bridge.  To get there you can either walk the 2+ miles along the old bridge (although right now it is closed to that route due to the walkway from the bridge to the island being under repair) or you can take a 10 minute boat ride out to the island from Marathon on the north Atlantic side of the 7 mile bridge.  We ended up being the only 2 people on the tour so it was a private tour for us which was fun and a nice little unexpected perk.  It was a cold, very windy day but the sun was shining bright so it was a nice day for the adventure.

Pigeon Key was instrumental in the building of the overseas railroad that was the vision of Henry Flagler to connect Miami to Key West.  It is on Pigeon Key that the housing for 400 railroad workers was kept.  To see pictures of what it looked like back in 1908 when the bridge was started, it is amazing that the conditions were tolerable back then.  Today there are beautiful, big shade trees and palm trees to sit under (although it was cold so we were looking more for the sun) but when the construction workers were living there, there were no trees at all.  I can't imagine the hot July/August sunshine and not a single tree to escape under!  The railroad was completed in 1912 and the island then became home to the swing bridge keeper.  Someone had to live there to work the bridge for when bigger boats needed to pass under it.  During WWII, military lived on the small island to protect the area from German U-boats.  It's amazing that such a small little island holds so much history and was so important to the growth of Florida and especially the Keys. 

It was a nice leisurely afternoon and in nicer weather you can stay and snorkel around the area but today it was definitely too cold to even consider snorkeling.  I'm happy I got the chance to visit before I left the area.  I love history but I love it more when I get to be in the place where the history occurred while I am learning.  I have always known that Henry Flagler was a huge part of the growth and history of Florida but the more I learn about him, his entrepreneurship and shear determination to make paradise a more livable place, the more impressed I become and the more I want to continue to learn about him.  I might need to consider a trip to his museum sometime in the near future.