Florida keys islands12/20/2023 ![]() This changed with the completion of Henry Flagler's Overseas Railway in the early 1910s. The Keys were long accessible only by water. Improved navigation led to fewer shipwrecks, and Key West went into a decline in the late nineteenth century. The isolated outpost was well located for trade with Cuba and the Bahamas and was on the main trade route from New Orleans. For many years, Key West was the largest town in Florida, and it grew prosperous on wrecking revenues. "Key" is derived from the Spanish word cayo, meaning small island. De León named the islands Los Martires ("The Martyrs"), as they looked like suffering men from a distance. The Keys were originally inhabited by the Calusa and Tequesta tribes, and were charted by Juan Ponce de León in 1513. Key West to Big Pine Key, seen from Sentinel-2 satellite The county consists of a section on the mainland which is almost entirely in Everglades National Park, and the Keys islands from Key Largo to the Dry Tortugas. The city of Key West is the county seat of Monroe County. The US Census population estimate for 2014 is 77,136. As of the 2010 census the population was 73,090 with an average density of 532.34 per square mile (205.54/km 2), although much of the population is concentrated in a few areas of much higher density, such as the city of Key West, which has 32% of the entire population of the Keys. The total land area is 137.3 square miles (356 km 2). More than 95 percent of the land area lies in Monroe County, but a small portion extends northeast into Miami-Dade County, such as Totten Key. The Florida Keys are between about 24.3 and 25.5 degrees North latitude. At the nearest point, the southern part of Key West is just 93 miles (150 km) from Cuba. 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. 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 Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States.
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