Monroe County is a county in the state of Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 73,090. Its county seat is Key West. Monroe County includes the islands of the Florida Keys and comprises the Key West Micropolitan Statistical Area.
Islamorada is an incorporated village in Monroe County, Florida, United States. It is located directly in the middle of Miami and Key West on five islands—Tea Table Key, Lower Matecumbe Key, Upper Matecumbe Key, Windley Key and Plantation Key—in the Florida Keys.
Key Largo is a census-designated place in Monroe County, Florida, United States, located on the island of Key Largo in the upper Florida Keys. The population was 10,433 at the 2010 census. The name comes from the Spanish Cayo Largo, or "long key". It is both the first island and town of the Florida Keys to be reached from the Overseas Highway to Key West. It was also the location of one of the stations of the Overseas Railroad.
The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about 15 miles (24 km) south of Miami, and extend in a gentle arc south-southwest and then westward to Key West, the westernmost of the inhabited islands, and on to the uninhabited Dry Tortugas. The islands lie along the Florida Straits, dividing the Atlantic Ocean to the east from the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, and defining one edge of Florida Bay. At the nearest point, the southern part of Key West is just 90 miles (140 km) from Cuba. The Florida Keys are between about 24.3 and 25.5 degrees North latitude.
The Great Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 was the most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall on record in terms of pressure, and tied with Hurricane Dorian for the strongest landfalling Atlantic hurricane by maximum sustained winds, with winds of 185 mph (295 km/h) at landfall. It was also the most intense Atlantic hurricane on record until Hurricane Gilbert in 1988. The fourth tropical cyclone, third tropical storm, second hurricane, and second major hurricane of the 1935 Atlantic hurricane season, the Labor Day hurricane was the first known Category 5 hurricane on record to strike the contiguous United States.
Theater of the Sea, established in 1946, is a marine mammal park located in the Village of Islamorada, Florida, United States. It is a tourist attraction located on Windley Key in the Florida Keys. Visitors can swim with Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, California sea lions, and sting rays and nurse sharks, or watch shows where they perform. Dolphins swim in and jump through a hoop and ring a bell. The 17-acre (6.9 ha) site also has exotic birds, lizards, crocodilians, sea turtles, tropical, game fish, sharks, and other forms of marine life. Short cruises and bottomless boat rides are also conducted.
Long Key is an island in the middle Florida Keys. Long Key was called Cayo Víbora by early Spanish explorers, a reference to the shape of the island, which resembles a snake with its jaws open, rather than to its denizens. The city of Layton is located on Long Key. The 965-acre (3.9 km2) state park (3.9 km²) was dedicated October 1, 1969.
The Overseas Highway is a 113-mile (181.9 km) highway carrying U.S. Route 1 (US 1) through the Florida Keys. Large parts of it were built on the former right-of-way of the Overseas Railroad, the Key West Extension of the Florida East Coast Railway. Completed in 1912, the Overseas Railroad was heavily damaged and partially destroyed in the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. The Florida East Coast Railway was financially unable to rebuild the destroyed sections, so the roadbed and remaining bridges were sold to the state of Florida for $640,000.
Long Key State Park is a 965-acre (3.91 km2) Florida State Park located on Long Key, one of the Florida Keys, in Monroe County, Florida, United States. It is at mile marker 67.5 on U.S. 1, 67400 Overseas Highway.
Lower Matecumbe Key is an island in the upper Florida Keys, United States, located on U.S. 1 between mile markers 75–78.
Plantation Key is an island in Monroe County, Florida, United States. It is located in the upper Florida Keys on U.S. 1, between Key Largo and Windley Key.
Windley Key is an island in the upper Florida Keys in Monroe County, Florida, United States.
Upper Matecumbe Key is an island in the upper Florida Keys.
Bahia Honda is an island in the lower Florida Keys.
Keystone is a type of limestone, or coral rag, quarried in the Florida Keys, in particular from Windley Key fossil quarry, which is now a State Park of Florida. The limestone is Pleistocene in age, and the rock primarily consists of scleractinian coral, such as Elkhorn coral and Brain coral.
The Palatka-Lake Butler State Trail (PLB) corridor stretches nearly 47 miles (76 km) from the vicinity of Lake Butler, Florida to Palatka, Florida. The project is located along the former Norfolk Southern Railroad right-of-way and the trail is being constructed on top of the existing abandoned railroad bed through Putnam, Clay, Bradford, and Union counties.
Paleontology in Florida refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Florida. Florida has a very rich fossil record spanning from the Eocene to recent times. Florida fossils are often very well preserved.
Snake Creek Bridge is a bascule bridge in the village of Islamorada in the Florida Keys. The single-leaf bascule bridge carries the Overseas Highway over Snake Creek, connecting Plantation Key and Windley Key. It is located near mile marker 86.
