I am so glad someone got shots of something "Key West" extension in the database. There are many old bridges and bits of evidence left of the old FEC line to Key West. Great work. It's a shame trains do not roll here today.
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| Posted by on April 26, 2014 | |
That section of span was removed to facilitate boat movement
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| Posted by AZ Mike on April 26, 2014 | |
I think History Channel did a special on the Hurricane of 1935, it was very interesting.
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Never seen any of that before in such a good shot - thanks for sharing and posting.
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| Posted by Jonah P on April 26, 2014 | |
:| very Carl can u help me post photos dad ? btw I hate
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I wonder if FEC would ever rebuild it again...
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| Posted by on April 27, 2014 | |
FEC would never rebuild it, in fact they abandoned the remains of their mainline from Homestead back to Kendall in the 1980's, and in the 90's it was cut back to around the Miami Airport
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Great shot, Carl! That it was the railroad to Key West is amazing enough, but the composition and, more, the span missing, just makes the shot!
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The state of Florida is currently converting the old bridges (the old highway ran on top of what had been the railroad bridges) into a 106 mile long rails-to-trails. Several of the bridges had a large section knocked out of their center, to allow boat traffic through. These are being reconnected (I'm not sure how) and the tops resurfaced for use by cyclists, pedestrians, and, of course, the ubiquitous fishermen. The project is scheduled to be completed in the next few years, and a lot of it has already been completed. When done, the "trail" will allow one to walk/cycle from Key West all of the way back to the mainland.
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Very interesting photo and caption. I wonder though...there is a "bump" farther down the bridge which I assume was for boat traffic. Are the boats (ships), getting that big at this time that the removal of a span is needed? Wow.
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Randy, The "bump" is the swing span, that was part of the original bridge. The swing span was there for boat traffic. As for the boats (ships) being very big............ The water around the Keys is very shallow (about waist deep) for several miles in any direction, except for the channels. So, no, there aren't any really large ships passing through this part of the bridge.
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Uh, hey bob- I think we're missing a piece of the bridge here. Interesting they never repaired this bridge.
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