This is the famous old 7 mile bridge that was once part of the US 1 Overseas Highway. When completed in 1912, it was one the longest bridges in existence. It was originally built as a railroad and was known as the Overseas Railroad but due to heavy damage from the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, it was sold to the US Federal Government who refurbished the bridge to be used by automobiles and installed a swing span to allow boat traffic. The 100 year old bridge is no longer used today by cars due to further damage by hurricanes but is widely used as a historic bike trail adventure. It extends for 2.2 miles from Marathon Key to Pigeon Key until you hit the gap where the swing span was removed, so the other 4.8 miles of the bridge cannot be accessed. A new bridge (obviously) has taken over this bridge’s duty and actually runs next to it all the way down through the keys.

My summer Florida vacation actually was just about over. We were driving up from Key West when we stopped by the State Park Beach to explore the area. I grabbed this shot with my Leica X1 and couldn’t wait to edit this historic capture back at home. In Lightroom, I wanted to give a vintage look to the image since the bridge carried over 100 years of history. I applied a unique cross processing preset and adjusted the sky and lighting of the photo to give the look of an old vintage postcard you see in the early to mid 1900s.