For a time the island was the end of a railroad. Henry Flagler pushed his Florida East Coast Railway across open water from key to key, and in 1912 "Flagler's Folly" reached Key West — an engineering marvel that linked the island to the mainland for the first time. The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, a Category 5 storm, destroyed the line and took hundreds of lives, many of them World War I veterans working in the Keys. The roadbed was rebuilt for cars, the Overseas Highway opened in 1938, and U.S. 1 now runs the length of the Keys and ends here, at Mile Marker 0.
The Navy made Key West a base — a submarine station from the 1930s on — and the warm island drew writers and presidents. Ernest Hemingway kept a house at 907 Whitehead Street from 1931 to 1939, a place built of native limestone in 1851 and still known for the descendants of his six-toed cats. Tennessee Williams wrote here for decades. And Harry Truman so loved the old naval officers' quarters that they became his Little White House, where he ran the country through the winters of his presidency. The literary-and-presidential Key West remains a pilgrimage.
Why People Visit Key West
Key West rewards travelers who want history, water, and a freewheeling island culture rather than only a beach — the Southernmost Point, the Conch Republic, the literary and presidential houses, and a compact Old Town you can walk end to end. People come for the sunset at Mallory Square and the bars of Duval, for the Hemingway and Truman landmarks and the wrecking-era treasure, and for an easygoing day at Mile Marker 0 where the Overseas Highway, and the country, finally run out of road.
