What to See in Marathon - Top Sights and Attractions

Long, winding span connecting the Keys. The Seven Mile Bridge is a bridge in the Florida Keys, in Monroe County, Florida, United States. It connects Knight's Key in the Middle Keys to Little Duck Key in the Lower Keys. Among the longest bridges in existence when it was built, it is part of the Overseas Highway in the Keys, which is part of the 2,369-mile U.S. Route 1.

There are two bridges in this location. The modern bridge is open to vehicular traffic; the older one only to pedestrians and cyclists. The older bridge, originally known as the Knights Key-Pigeon Key-Moser Channel-Pacet Channel Bridge, was constructed from 1909 to 1912 under the direction of Henry Flagler and Clarence S. Coe as part of the Florida East Coast Railway's Key West Extension, also known as the Overseas Railroad.^[1]

Island. The Pigeon Key Historic District is a U.S. historic district located on Pigeon Key in Florida. The district is off U.S. 1 at mile marker 45. It contains 11 historic buildings and 3 structures. Although the old Seven Mile Bridge crosses over the island, at approximately mile marker 45, west of Knight's Key, and just east of Moser Channel, which is the deepest section of the seven-mile span, it and its exit ramp to the island were closed in 2008 and not reopened until 2022. While the bridge was closed, access was by ferry or private watercraft only, but in 2014 FDOT approved a $77 million plan to restore it. The old bridge was restored and reopened in 2022.

The island is named "Cayo Paloma" on many old Spanish charts.

The island is said to be named for large flocks of white-crowned pigeons (Columba leucocephala Linnaeus) which once roosted there. During the building of Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad Key West Extension, a major construction depot was located there, the jumping off point for construction of the Seven Mile Bridge. A number of buildings from the Flagler era remain on the island. They are now part of the Pigeon Key Historic District.

A rare three-way bridge, now partially abandoned, is located there.^[3]

Tourist attraction in Marathon, Florida. The George Adderley House is a historic home in the City of Marathon, Florida, United States. It is located at 5550 Overseas Highway. On September 10, 1992, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. The house is the oldest house in the Keys outside of Key West and the only surviving tabby house in the Keys.

Adderley was a black immigrant from the Bahamas. He came to the Key Largo, Florida in 1890 and by 1891 was a naturalized citizen of the United States. He and his wife Olivia got a $100 mortgage and bought the 32 acre property in 1901. He collected Sponges and made charcoal which he took by sailboat to Key West to sell to buy provisions he and Olivia could not make themselves.

The house was built from 1903 to 1905. The house is made of tabby, a homemade concrete like mixture of burnt shell, ashes, sand, shell and water. When the railroad came through in 1912 George negotiated a flag stop with the railway in exchange for a right of way across his land. Olivia died in 1948 at age 86. George lived on the property one more year until he sold the property to the Crane family in 1949. George moved to a home for the blind in Key West where he lived until his death in 1959, at the age of 88.

A small community, called Adderley Town, of 6 to 10 households developed around the Adderleys as he was an Episcopal lay preacher and held services in his home. While the Adderley House and a small outbuilding nearby are all that remain of Adderley Town, the site has been excavated and some of the tools and utensils probably used by him, his family and their community are on display in the nearby Museum of Natural History of the Florida Keys.

Located at Crane Point Museum & Nature Center, visitors may walk through the house as part of the admission fee to the non-profit nature center. Every January, Crane Point hosts a Bahamian Heritage Festival which celebrates the Bahamian heritage in the Florida Keys^[4]