Seven Mile Bridge

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 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. In 2014, the Florida Department of Transportation approved a $77 million plan to restore the old bridge. By 2017, the pedestrian section was closed for extensive repairs, and reopened in January 2022. ==Engineering==

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 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 or , 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. 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. ==In fiction==

The bridge has been featured in films and television series, such as Road House, Licence to Kill, True Lies, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Burn Notice, and is seen in the upcoming video game Grand Theft Auto VI. ==Gallery==

Original bridge File: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 File: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 File: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. File:Seven Mile Bridge, Florida Keys (8592496566).jpg|1955 view of the bridge. File:Traffic waiting for Moser Channel turnstile bridge.jpg|Traffic waiting for the open swing span over Moser Channel. File:Pigeon Key FL old bridge02.jpg|Severed segment after the bridge was closed to traffic. Current bridge File:A324, Seven Mile Bridge, Florida Keys, USA, 2010.JPG|Current bridge File:Seven miles bridge.jpg|Surface of the current bridge with original bridge and Pigeon Key in the background ==See also==