Seven Mile Bridge

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Seven Mile Bridge
The opening ceremony for the new bridge in 1982
Carries	2 lanes of US 1
Crosses	Moser Channel
Locale	Florida Keys
Maintained by	Florida Department of Transportation
ID number	900101
Design	concrete segmental box girder bridge
Longest span	41.15 meters (135 feet)
Total length	10887.5 meters (6.765 miles)
Width	11.58 meters (38 feet)
Clearance below	19.81 meter (65 feet)
Opening date	1982
Maps and aerial photos Street map from Google Maps or Yahoo! Maps Topographic map from TopoZone Aerial image or topographic map from TerraServer-USA Satellite image from Google Maps or Microsoft Virtual Earth

The Seven Mile Bridge, in the Florida Keys, runs over a channel between the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Strait, connecting Key Vaca (the location of the city of Marathon, Florida) in the Middle Keys to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. Among the longest bridges in existence when it was built, it is one of the many bridges on US 1 in the Keys, where the road is called the Overseas Highway.

There are two bridges in this location. The older bridge, originally known as the Knights Key-Pigeon Key-Moser Channel-Pacet Channel Bridge, was constructed from 1909-1912 under the direction of Henry Flagler as part of the Florida East Coast Railway's Key West Extension, also known as the Overseas Railroad.

This bridge was badly damaged by the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, and subsequently refurbished by the United States Federal Government as an automobile highway bridge. It had a swing span that opened to allow passage of boat traffic, near where the bridge crosses Pigeon Key, a small island where a work camp for Flagler's railroad was located. Hurricane Donna in 1960 caused further damage.

The present road bridge was constructed from 1979 to 1982. The vast majority of the original bridge still exists, used as fishing piers and access to Pigeon Key, but the swing span over the Moser Channel of the Intracoastal Waterway has been removed.

The new bridge is a box-girder structure built from precast, prestressed concrete sections, comprising 440 spans. Near the center, the bridge rises in an arc to provide 65-foot-high clearance for boat passage. The remainder of the bridge is considerably closer to the water surface. The new bridge does not cross Pigeon Key.

The total length of the bridge is actually 35,862 ft or 6.79 miles (10.93 km).

The spectacular bridge has attracted many film makers. Its film 'credits' include scenes in True Lies, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Licence to Kill and Up Close & Personal. In True Lies, filmed in the early 1990s, a section of the old bridge is shown being destroyed by missile strikes. The missiles were edited in, and the explosions were done on an 80-foot (24 m) model of the bridge, but filming was done on the actual bridge, and the "destroyed" section is the former swing span, which had been removed upon completion of the new bridge.

Each April the bridge is closed for approximately 2.5 hours on a Saturday and a "fun run" of 1,500 runners is held commemorating the Florida Keys bridge rebuilding project.

Edit	Florida Keys
Biscayne National Park	Soldier Key, Ragged Keys, Boca Chita Key, Sands Key, Elliott Key, Adams Key, Old Rhodes Key, City of Islandia
Upper keys	Key Largo (island), North Key Largo (CDP), Key Largo (CDP), Tavernier (CDP), Plantation Key (island), Plantation Key (former CDP), Windley Key, Upper Matecumbe Key, Indian Key, Lignumvitae Key, Lower Matecumbe Key, Village of Islamorada
Middle keys	Craig Key, Fiesta Key, Long Key, City of Layton, Conch Key, Duck Key (CDP), Grassy Key, Crawl Key, Long Point Key, Fat Deer Key, Key Vaca, City of Marathon, City of Key Colony Beach, Boot Key, Knight's Key, Pigeon Key
Lower keys	Little Duck Key, Missouri Key, Ohio Key, Sunshine Key, Bahia Honda Key, Spanish Harbor Key, West Summerland Key, No Name Key, Big Pine Key (CDP), Little Torch Key, Middle Torch Key, Big Torch Key, Ramrod Key, Summerland Key, Knockemdown Key, Cudjoe Key (CDP), Sugarloaf Key, Park Key, Lower Sugarloaf Key, Saddlebunch Keys, Shark Key, Geiger Key, Big Coppitt Key (CDP), East Rockland Key, Rockland Key, Boca Chica Key, Key Haven, Stock Island (CDP), Key West, Sigsbee Park, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, Wisteria Island
Outlying islands	Mule Keys, Ballast Key, Marquesas Keys, Dry Tortugas, Tortugas Bank
Areas	Florida Bay, Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, National Key Deer Sanctuary, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Biscayne Bay, Biscayne National Park, Key West National Wildlife Refuge, Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge, Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge
Other topics	Monroe County, Conch Republic, Overseas Highway, Overseas Railroad, Card Sound Bridge, Seven Mile Bridge, Bahia Honda Bridge, Theater of the Sea, Hurricane Wilma, Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, Key Deer, Ocean Reef Club, Key lime pie, Florida Keys Keynoter, Key West Citizen