government then rebuilt the rail route as an automobile highway, completed in 1938, which became an extension of United States Highway 1. The FEC could not afford to restore the railroad. The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 destroyed much of the railroad and killed hundreds of residents. Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway (FEC). Key West was relatively isolated until 1912, when it was connected to the Florida mainland via the Overseas Railway extension of Henry M. flag, physically claiming the Keys as United States property.
Perry sailed the schooner Shark to Key West and planted the U.S.
The island was considered the 'Gibraltar of the West' because of its strategic location on the 90-mile (140 km)–wide deep shipping lane, the Straits of Florida, between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. While claimed by Spain, no nation exercised de-facto control over the community there for some time. The island was used by fishermen from Cuba and from the British Bahamas, who were later joined by others from the United States after the latter nation's independence. As Florida became a Spanish colony, a fishing and salvage village with a small garrison was established here. The first European to visit was Juan Ponce de León in 1521. In Pre-Columbian times Key West was inhabited by the Tequesta and Calusa peoples.
