Seven Mile Bridge
Seven Mile Bridge is one of the most popular views of the islands near Florida. Seven Mile Bridge is a unique feature of engineering thought. It is the most photographed image in the region of the Florida Keys, but it is the longest bridge in the world, built by individual segment blocks.
Seven miles Islands sit just exactly in Florida, passing the place known as, Knight's Key, the so called Little Duck Key is at the bottom of the island group.
In most general, the Seven Mile Bridge is the transition between the middle and lower parts of the Florida Keys.
Today, the seven mile bridge in the district of Monroe County in Florida is one of the longest such structures in the world with its length of more than 10 kilometers. Seven miles has two lanes, as the width of the bridge reaches 11.58 meters. In fact, this place has two bridges - old and new.
The old Seven Mile Bridge was constructed at the beginning of last century, between the years of 1909-1912. The Project Manager was Henry Flagler, who built the bridge, intended primarily for rail. The seven mile bridge was known as the Florida East Coast Railway. It is also called, Overseas rail bridge.
The construction of the Old Bridge, however, suffered serious damage after a hurricane in 1935 (Labor Day Hurricane). After the damage that this natural disaster caused to the building over the ocean, the U.S. Federal Government gave a grant amount for its repair. The seven mile bridge was transformed into a passenger car highway. During Hurricane Donna in 1960 again damage was to the construction of seven miles.
Construction of this Seven Mile Bridge started in 1978, there is still a part of the old bridge there, acting as a fishing pier. New construction of seven miles consists of 440 individual specially designed segmented blocks.
The plot, which is near the middle of the bridge, has a higher, curved structure, which stands 20 meters from the level of passing vessels. The rest of seven miles is much closer to the water. The bridge was officially opened on May 24th in 1982. The exact length is 10, 931 km.
Every year on the seven mile bridge a marathon is held. This mass "running" is traditionally in April and every time the bridge was closed for about two and a half hours. Each year about 1, 500 people engage in the traditional race on the seven mile bridge.
A number of cinema movies such as "James Bond", "Righteous Kill", "True Lies" and others have used the seven mile bridge as scenery.
