In J.W. Norie’s “Piloting Directions for the Gulf of Florida, the Bahama Bank & Islands,” he states: “And a large island on the east side, a mile long, with a sandy beach, remarkable for a number of tall palmetto cabbage-trees, the first of the islands you fall in with coming from the westward this island is therefor called Cabbage-Tree Island.”
In Gerdes’ 1849 “Reconnaissance of the Florida Reef and All The Keys,” he stated: “The large Id. called on the chart Cabbage Tree Island is the Bahia Honda Key.” The island is special for several reasons. In terms of spectacles in the Florida Keys, the old Bahia Honda railroad bridge is practically unrivaled.
Though not the longest of the bridges built during the construction of the Key West Extension of the Florida East Coast Railway, the Bahia Honda Bridge was the most challenging. Work began on the extensive project in 1905 and involved more than building a bridge across the Bahia Honda Channel to West Summerland Key.
Before engineers figured out what to do about the difficult task of building a bridge across the channel, there was the matter of traversing Bahia Honda. The interior of the island had a lagoon that had to be crossed. Also, after crossing the lagoon and Bahia Honda proper, there was a narrow pass to a smaller island. The pass flowed through what is today the general area of the park’s marina.
On this smaller island, a railroad camp called the Bahia Honda Sand Pit Camp housed workers. It is on this smaller island, too, where the iconic bridge was built. But first, another bridge was built. The first bridge was a wooden trestle bridge that started on Bahia Honda and spanned the pass. The bridge created a gradual grade leading to the high approach necessary to cross the channel. Workers dredged up fill and, over and over, dumped it around the wooden trestles until the rising bridge and the pass disappeared.
The next job was dealing with the bahia honda. Bahia honda is Spanish for deep bay. The Bahia Honda Channel proved to be a particular challenge because it was the deepest pass the right-of-way crossed. It reaches a depth of at least 30 feet. Engineers struggled with how to make it passable. According to Dan Gallagher’s excellent book “Florida’s Great Ocean Railway,” there was talk of ending the line of the Key West Extension of Flagler’s East Coast Railway at Bahia Honda.
The same concept used to create the series of bridges referred to now as the Seven Mile Bridge would have been expensive. To bridge the channel, 64 piers, some 50 feet tall, would have to be built to accommodate the 80-foot steel deck plates used to construct the Seven Mile Bridge (which is actually four separate bridge sections). The cost of the project was one reason the engineers decided to go a different route and construct the truss bridge that stands over the water today.
Because the truss sections were longer than the 80-foot steel deck plates, they only had to build 34 piers. Due to the swift-moving currents, creating the piers was hazardous work. One of the reasons the project took so long was that work was restricted to two 45-minute shifts during slack tide, the brief period between high and low tides when the water is still. It was not until January 1912 that the work was completed.
It was Jan. 22 when Henry Flagler boarded his railcar, the Flagler Special, and rode from the mainland to Key West for the first time. The train steamed and chugged up and down the island chain for 23 years. When it passed through the trusses of the Bahia Honda Bridge, passengers were told to keep their hands and heads inside as it rambled and roared 25 feet above the turquoise waters.
The 1935 Labor Day Hurricane ended the run of the Over-Sea Railroad when 40 miles of tracks were destroyed Sept. 2. While Flagler’s bridges survived the hurricane’s rage, the train never ran again, and the Florida East Coast Railway sold the right-of-way to the state of Florida.
Because the railroad bridges were so well constructed, many of them were widened to accommodate automobile traffic. Because of the Bahia Honda truss design, widening was not possible. Instead, they paved their way over the top of the trusses. The second version of the Overseas Highway opened to public transit in 1938. When it did, drivers drove 65 feet above the water.
The road ran over the top of the bridge for longer than the train ran through it. In 1972, the modern Bahia Honda Bridge opened, and the highway was rerouted to its present course. It delivers one of the most scenic views the Overseas Highway has to offer. When the old railroad bridge is the only thing standing between the modern highway and the setting sun, the view is spectacular.
It should be stated that it is dangerous to swim under the bridge. The tide brings strong currents that can be more than a swimmer can stand. Additionally, there is a local legend known as Big Mo to consider.
The old railroad piers provide structure, and, in the underwater world, structure attracts life. Fish, crustaceans, sponges and other organisms build around the structure and create a small ecosystem. Among the fish that gather to hunt for a meal are tarpon. The tarpon is a big fish, growing to be more than 100 pounds and five feet long. However, where tarpons gather, sharks will also patrol in search of a snack.
Big Mo’s legend spans decades and revolves around a big mother-something hammerhead shark measuring 15 feet in some accounts and 20 feet in others. The shark is associated with Bahia Honda and the old Seven Mile Bridge. As elusive as a skunk ape, Big Mo seems never to have been reeled in. Still, stories abound of that time when Big Mo chomped down on some unfortunate tarpon and, as the two fish thrashed about in mortal combat, red clouded the water and the tarpon became a meal, one piece at a time.
