Pigeon Key

Pigeon Key is a five-acre historic island beneath the Old Seven Mile Bridge near Marathon. It began as a camp for the workers building the Florida East Coast Railway’s Key West Extension; later it housed the crew who maintained the bridge. The island is now a compact historic district with a museum in one of its original cottages. I’d make time for it if you like railway history or want the bridge crossing to be part of the day, not just a view from the highway.

Walking or biking from Knight’s Key takes about 2.2 miles each way over the old bridge. The passenger train uses a separate mainland depot at the Pigeon Key Visitors Center, 1090 Overseas Highway, near Mile Marker 47; it does not board at the bridge-end parking by Mile Marker 48. Check the current train schedule before setting out and reserve ahead if you’re counting on it. Private boats can tie up at the island dock. Admission is required to access the island and its facilities, including for visitors who arrive on foot or by boat.

A guided history visit brings the buildings into focus. The museum occupies the original Assistant Bridge Tender’s home and holds railroad artifacts, portraits and stories about the people who lived here. Visitors also describe time to wander among the low wood-frame cottages, picnic and enjoy the water after the tour. Swimming and snorkeling are part of some visits, but conditions and what’s available can vary.

The railway construction camp dates to 1908. When the line was completed in 1912, Pigeon Key became a bridge-tender maintenance camp. It grew into a small village: a one-room school, post office and commissary served the island, and more than 400 railroad workers lived here. The old buildings make that scale easier to picture than a timeline alone.

The 1935 Great Hurricane wrecked much of the railway in the Upper Keys. Pigeon Key became a southern base for rescue, relief and evacuation work. The Overseas Highway opened in 1938, and the new Seven Mile Bridge bypassed the island in 1982; that’s why the old settlement still sits apart beneath the modern route.

A 105-by-11-foot solar array went in during 2013 and now supplies nearly 95 percent of the island’s electrical needs, backed by battery banks. It’s a notable piece of the place’s present-day life on an island built around a railroad and bridge crew.

The island makes the most sense in a photo with its setting: from the old bridge, frame the cottages below the trestle so the steel span and the small cluster of buildings appear together. On the island, the wooden dock and low shoreline give you another clear view of how closely the settlement sits against the water.