Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Main other{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox bridge with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank = 1| also_known_as | alt | aqueduct_name | architect | begin | below | bridge_name | builder | built | capacity | caption | carries | child | clearance | clearance_above | clearance_below | closed | collapsed | demolished | complete | contracted_designer | coord_format | coordinates | cost | crosses | dedicated | depth | design | designer | destroyed | diameter | downstream | electrification | embed | embedded | ends | engineering | extra | fabricator | fetchwikidata |first_length | first_diameter | followed | gauge | height | heritage | id | id_type | image | image_caption | image_size | image_upright | inaugurated | lanes | length | life | load | locale | location | mainspan | maint | maintained | mapframe | mapframe-caption | mapframe-custom | mapframe-id | mapframe-coord | mapframe-wikidata | mapframe-point | mapframe-shape | mapframe-frame-width | mapframe-frame-height | mapframe-shape-fill | mapframe-shape-fill-opacity | mapframe-stroke-color | mapframe-stroke-colour | mapframe-stroke-width | mapframe-marker | mapframe-marker-color | mapframe-marker-colour | mapframe-geomask | mapframe-geomask-stroke-color | mapframe-geomask-stroke-colour | mapframe-geomask-stroke-width | mapframe-geomask-fill | mapframe-geomask-fill-opacity | mapframe-zoom | mapframe-length_km | mapframe-length_mi | mapframe-area_km2 | mapframe-area_mi2 | mapframe-frame-coordinates | mapframe-frame-coord | mapframe-switcher | material | material1 | material2 | name | named_for | native_name | native_name_lang | notrack | num_track | number_spans | official_name | onlysourced | open | opened | opening | os_grid_reference | other_name | owner | passable | piers_in_water | pierswater | preceded | qid | rebuilt | references | refs | replaced_by | replaces | second_length | second_diameter | spans | starts | structure_gauge | third_length | third_diameter | toll | towpath | track_gauge | traffic | traversable | upstream | website | width | winner }}Template:Main other
The Seven Mile Bridge is a 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 part of the Overseas Highway in the Keys, which is part of the Template:Convert U.S. Route 1.<ref name=history/><ref name=nyt/>
There are two bridges in this location. The modern bridge is open to vehicular traffic; the older one only 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 and Clarence S. Coe as part of the Florida East Coast Railway's Key West Extension, also known as the Overseas Railroad.
HistoryEdit
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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 into Hawk Channel, 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 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 Template:Convert 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In 2014, the Florida Department of Transportation approved a $77 million plan to restore the old bridge.<ref name=nyt>Template:Cite news</ref> By 2017, the pedestrian section was closed for extensive repairs, and reopened in January 2022.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
EngineeringEdit
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 Template:Convert-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 Template:Convert or Template:Convert, and is shorter than the original. The bridge carries the Florida Keys aqueduct, supplying water to points west, as well as fiber optic cables, providing telecommunications to and from the lower Keys.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Each April, the bridge is closed for about 2.5 hours on a Saturday for the Seven Mile Bridge Run that commemorates 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 (who also engineered the much taller Sunshine Skyway Bridge). 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
In fictionEdit
The bridge has been featured in films and television series, such as Road House, Licence to Kill,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> True Lies,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> 2 Fast 2 Furious,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Burn Notice, and is seen in the upcoming video game Grand Theft Auto VI.
GalleryEdit
Original bridge
- East Coast Railway train crossing Moser Channel on the Key West extension of the Overseas Railroad (12480734864).jpg
Illustration of FEC train crossing the bridge
- Moser Channel Bridge, draw span partially open, no date (Kyle K-32). - Seven Mile Bridge, Linking Florida Keys, Marathon, Monroe County, FL HAER FLA,44-KNIKE,1-68.tif
Moser Channel swing span in the railroad-era
- Pigeon Key from the Seven Mile Bridge, Florida Keys (8591385115).jpg
Approaching Pigeon Key post-highway conversion. Guardrails are made up of rails from the former railroad.
- Seven Mile Bridge, Florida Keys (8592496566).jpg
1955 view of the bridge.
- Traffic waiting for Moser Channel turnstile bridge.jpg
Traffic waiting for the open swing span over Moser Channel.
- Pigeon Key FL old bridge02.jpg
Severed segment after the bridge was closed to traffic.
Current bridge
- A324, Seven Mile Bridge, Florida Keys, USA, 2010.JPG
Current bridge
- Seven miles bridge.jpg
Surface of the current bridge with original bridge and Pigeon Key in the background
See alsoEdit
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- List of bridges documented by the Historic American Engineering Record in Florida
ReferencesEdit
External linksEdit
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- Friends of Old Seven website
- FIGG Seven Mile Bridge Template:Webarchive
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- Template:HAER
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