Lower Florida Keys

A coral cay archipelago just off the southern coast of Florida, the Florida Keys form the southernmost region of the continental US, beginning at the Florida peninsula on southeastern coast (just 15 miles south of Miami) and then arching into Key West—the westernmost region of islands—with the uninhabited Dry Tortugas lying just beyond that. Key West’s southern point lies just 90 miles from Cuba, with the islands of the Florida Straits dividing the Gulf of Mexico from the Atlantic Ocean and defining the Florida Bay. The climate of the Keys is best described as the tropical savanna with a total land area of 137.3 square miles. The Seven Mile Bridge, one of the longest bridges when it was first built (6.79 miles long), is what connects Knight's Key to Little Duck Key, while it completely bypasses Pigeon Key. The original structure of the bridge included an access point to Pigeon Key but was closed to vehicular traffic in 2008 because of structure aging. The roadway, US Highway 1 is now referred to as the Overseas Highway and is the chief means for automobile travel from Key Largo all the way south to Key West and throughout the tropical islands that make up the Florida Keys.