On view now

From Flagler's Railway to the Overseas Highway

Henry Flagler's Over-Sea Railway was called the eighth wonder of the world — an iron road carried on concrete arches across open ocean, from Homestead to Key West, completed in 1912 at a cost no railroad had ever attempted. For more than two decades the trains brought the islands their mail, freight, and visitors, and carried Key West pineapples, sponges, and cigar workers' hopes north. On Labor Day 1935, the strongest hurricane ever to strike the United States swept much of it into the sea. Follow the remarkable story of what rose from that wreckage: the bridges repurposed for cars and the Overseas Highway that carries the Keys today — a road built on the rails' foundations.