Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad — the "railroad that went to sea" — crossed Key Largo on its way down the chain, and the first train ran through to Key West in 1912. For two decades the island sat on one of the boldest rail lines ever built in America, until the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 — the strongest ever to strike the United States — tore out the line below. The railroad never ran again; the Overseas Highway opened along its path in 1938, and U.S. 1 has carried the Keys' traffic ever since.
Away from the reef, Key Largo is a last refuge. The Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park protects one of the largest tracts of West Indian tropical hardwood hammock in the continental United States — home of the Key Largo woodrat, found nowhere else on Earth — and the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center nurses pelicans and herons back to the sky. On the bay side, the island opens onto Florida Bay and the Everglades: Key Largo is the rare town with a national park to its west and America's first undersea park to its east.
Why People Visit Key Largo Florida
- Snorkel or dive John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park — America's first undersea park — by glass-bottom boat, snorkel tour, or scuba charter.
- Descend to the Christ of the Abyss off Key Largo Dry Rocks, or dive Molasses Reef and the wrecks beyond.
- Ride the actual African Queen — the 1912 steam launch from the 1951 film — on a canal cruise.
- Sleep underwater at Jules' Undersea Lodge, the world's first underwater hotel.
- Walk the hardwood hammock at Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park, and visit the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center.
- Kayak the mangroves into Florida Bay, or day-trip west to Everglades National Park.
- End every day the Keys way: a sunset cruise and a slice of key lime pie.
