Seven Mile Bridge

Seven Mile Bridge
Seven Mile Bridge with the original in the foreground
Coordinates	24°41′54″N 81°10′36″W / 24.6982°N 81.1767°W / 24.6982; -81.1767Coordinates: 24°41′54″N 81°10′36″W / 24.6982°N 81.1767°W / 24.6982; -81.1767
Carries	2 lanes of US 1
Crosses	Moser Channel
Locale	Florida Keys, Monroe County, Florida
Maintained by	Florida Department of Transportation
ID number	900101
Characteristics
Design	precast segmented box girder bridge
Total length	10887.5 meters (6.765 miles)
Width	11.58 meters (38 ft)
Longest span	41.15 meters (135 ft)
Clearance below	19.81 meters (65 ft)
History
Construction cost	$45 million ^[1]
Opened	May 24, 1982
Location in Florida

The Seven Mile Bridge is a famous bridge in the Florida Keys, in Monroe County, Florida, United States. It connects Knight's Key (part of the city of Marathon, Florida) in the Middle Keys to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. Among the longest bridges in existence when it was built, it is one of the bridges on Overseas Highway in the Keys, part of the 2,369 mile long US 1.

There are two bridges in this location. The modern bridge is open to vehicular traffic, whereas the older bridge is only open to pedestrians and cyclists. The older bridge, originally known as the Knights Key-Pigeon Key-Moser Channel-Pacet Channel Bridge, was constructed from 1909 to 1912 under the direction of Henry Flagler as part of the Florida East Coast Railway's Key West Extension, also known as the Overseas Railroad.

History

Old Seven Mile Bridge, with ramp on the left connecting it to Pigeon Key

Entrance Plaque

After the railroad was damaged by the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, the line was sold to the United States government, which refurbished Seven Mile Bridge for automobile use. Unsupported sections were added in 1935 to widen it for vehicular traffic. Dismantled trackage was recycled, painted white, and used as guardrails. It had a swing span to allow passage of boats in the Moser Channel of the Intracoastal Waterway, near where the bridge crosses Pigeon Key, a small island that held a work camp for Flagler's railroad. Hurricane Donna in 1960 caused further damage.

The original railroad tracks were reused as guardrails when the bridge was converted for vehicular traffic.

The current road bridge was constructed from 1978 to 1982.

The vast majority of the original bridge still exists, although the swing span has been removed. The 2.2-mile section to Pigeon Key, used as a fishing pier and long open to motorized vehicles to give access to the key, was closed to motorized traffic in 2008 after the unsupported sections began to sag. As of 2015, the section remains open to pedestrians and bicyclists.^[2]^[3] In 2014, Florida Department of Transportation approved a $77 million plan to restore the old bridge.^[4]

Engineering

The full span of the Seven Mile Bridge as seen from the east shore of Ohio Key. The arc over Moser Channel can be seen to the right and Knight's Key can be seen to the extreme right.

The new bridge is a box-girder structure built from precast, prestressed concrete sections, comprising 440 spans. Near the center, the bridge rises in an arc to provide 65-foot (20 m)-high clearance for boat passage. The remainder of the bridge is considerably closer to the water surface. The new bridge does not cross Pigeon Key.

The total length of the new bridge is actually 35,862 ft (10,931 m) or 6.79 miles (10.93 km), and is shorter than the original. Each April the bridge is closed for approximately 2.5 hours on a Saturday and a "fun run," known as the Seven Mile Bridge Run, of 1,500 runners is held commemorating the Florida Keys bridge rebuilding project. The event began in 1982 to commemorate the completion of a federally funded bridge building program that replaced spans that oil tycoon Henry Flagler constructed in the early 1900s to serve as a foundation for his Overseas Railroad.

The Seven Mile Bridge was engineered by Figg & Muller Engineers. The structure was completed six months ahead of schedule and has earned eight awards, including an Exceptional Award for Cost Savings Innovation from the Federal Highway Administration.^[5]

In fiction

The Bridge has been featured in the films and television series Licence to Kill, True Lies, The Haunted Mansion, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Mission Impossible III, I Am Number Four and Leverage.

References

↑ "Seven Mile Bridge to Key West, Florida Construction began in 1979. Finished in…". Google+. line feed character in |title= at position 39 (help)
↑ Toppino, Nancy (2008-11-18). Florida Keys and Key West. Globe Pequot Press. p. 271. ISBN 9780762748716. Retrieved 2015-01-17.
↑ Gross, Bonnie. "Florida Keys: The Old Seven Mile Bridge in Marathon". floridarambler.com. Retrieved 2015-01-17.
↑ Elaine, Glusac (2014-04-03). "In the Keys, New Plans for an Old Bridge". New York Times. Retrieved 2015-01-17.
↑ "Seven Mile Bridge". Structurae.

External links

Friends of Old Seven website
FIGG Seven Mile Bridge
Knight's Key Bridge (1912) at Structurae
Pigeon Key Bridge (1912) at Structurae
Moser Channel Bridge (1912) at Structurae
Pacet Channel Viaduct (1912) at Structurae
Seven Mile Bridge (1982) at Structurae
Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. FL-2, "Seven Mile Bridge, Linking Florida Keys, Knight Key, Monroe County, FL"

Gallery

View from the arc over Moser Channel, looking northeast towards Knight's Key (Marathon). Tiny Pigeon Key can be seen on the left, between the old and new bridges.
View of the new bridge from the old bridge.
View of Seven Mile Bridge.
New and old bridges

Florida Keys

Biscayne National Park	Soldier Ragged Boca Chita Sands Elliott Adams Caesar's Rock Meig's Rubicon Reid Porgy Totten Old Rhodes Islandia

Upper keys	Key Largo Island CDP North Tavernier Plantation Island former CDP Windley Upper Matecumbe Tea Table Indian Lignumvitae Lower Matecumbe Islamorada

Middle keys	Craig Fiesta Long Layton Conch Little Duck Key Island CDP Grassy Crawl Long Point Fat Deer Vaca Marathon Key Colony Beach Boot Knights

Lower keys	Pigeon Money Little Duck Missouri Ohio Sunshine Bahia Honda Spanish Harbor Scout (West Summerland) No Name Big Pine Torch Little Middle Big Ramrod Summerland Knockemdown Cudjoe Sugarloaf Park Lower Sugarloaf Saddlebunch Shark Geiger Big Coppitt Island CDP East Rockland Rockland Boca Chica Raccoon Stock Island Island CDP Key West Island City Sigsbee Fleming Sunset Wisteria

Outlying islands	Mule Keys Mule Crawfish Archer Joe Ingram Big Mullet Barracouta Cottrell Man Little Mullet Ballast Woman Boca Grande Marquesas Keys Dry Tortugas Tortugas Banks (submerged)

Areas	Florida Bay Dry Tortugas National Park Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary National Key Deer Refuge John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park Biscayne Bay Biscayne National Park Key West National Wildlife Refuge Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge Florida Reef

Other topics	Monroe County Conch Republic Overseas Highway Overseas Railroad Card Sound Bridge Jewfish Creek Bridge Seven Mile Bridge Bahia Honda Rail Bridge Fort Jefferson Theater of the Sea Hurricane Wilma 1935 Labor Day hurricane Key Deer Key lime pie Florida Keys Keynoter Key West Citizen

Notable bridges and tunnels in Florida

Panhandle	Escambia Bay Garcon Point John Gorrie Mid-Bay Pensacola Bay St. George Island Trammell Victory

North	Acosta Bridge of Lions Main Street Buckman Dames Point Fuller Warren Hart Mathews Memorial Strauss Trunnion Thomas B. Manuel Blue Heron Flagler Memorial

West Central	Bayside Blackburn Point Bridge^‡ Clearwater Memorial Courtney Campbell Gandy Howard Frankland Pinellas Bayway Sunshine Skyway Treasure Island

East Central	A. Max Brewer Astor Bennett Bert Dosh Broadway Eau Gallie Granada Melbourne Merritt Island NASA Osteen Pineda Port Orange Roosevelt Sebastian Inlet Wabasso Merrill P. Barber Alma Lee Loy Whitehair

South	Broad Coral Springs^† Julia Tuttle John F. Kennedy Lehman MacArthur Rickenbacker Snow-Reed^‡ Venetian

Southwest	Boca Grande^‡ Bonita Beach Caloosahatchee Cape Coral Edison John Ringling Matanzas Pass Midpoint Sanibel S.S. Jolley

Keys	Bahia Honda Card Sound Jewfish Creek Long Key Overseas Highway Seven Mile

Tunnels	Henry E. Kinney Port of Miami

Ferries	Drayton Island Fort Gates Mayport

^† – Covered bridge ^‡ – Swing bridge See also: List of bridges in Florida

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