Key West is a city in Monroe County, Florida, United States. Key West is part of the Southern Coastlands region of U.S.
Key West is located at 24°33′33″N, 81°47′03″W (24.559166, -81.784031).[17] The maximum elevation above sea level is about 18 feet (6 m), a one acre area known as Solares Hill.[18] Key West Island is about 4 miles (6 km) long and 2 miles (3 km) wide; since the late 20th century it has been artificially expanded to the east. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 19.2 km² (7.4 mi²). 15.4 km² (5.9 mi²) of it is land and 3.8 km² (1.5 mi²) of it (19.73%) is water.
The city encompasses the island of Key West, the part of Stock Island north of U.S 1, (the Overseas Highway) (east), Sigsbee Park (north, originally known as Dredgers Key), Fleming Key (north), and Sunset K (west, originally known as Tank Island). Both Fleming Key and Sigsbee Park are part of Naval Air Station Key West and are inaccessible by civilians. Key West is the county seat of Monroe County. Key West is the southernmost city in the Continental United States. It is also the southern terminus of U.S. 1, State Road A1A, the East GreenWay and, before 1935, the Florida East Coast Railway.
degrees) of Miami Florida (about 160 miles (260 km) by car) and 106 miles (171 km) north-northeast (21.2 degrees) of Havana Cuba, at its closest point, is 94 statute miles (151 km) south. Key West is a seaport destination for many passenger cruise ships. It is also a reason the city was chosen as the Winter White House of President Harry S. Truman. The central businesses district primarily comprises Duval Street,
and includes much of the northwest corner of the island along
Whitehead, Simonton, Front, Greene, Caroline, and Eaton Streets and
Truman Avenue. The official city motto is "One Human Family."Key West is 129 miles (208 km) southwest (229.9
Urbanization 
Key West, Fleming Key, and Urbanization: The building of Henry Flagler's East Coast Railway Key West Extension in the early 1900s profoundly affected the Florida Keys, including Boca Chica Key and Key West. Parks (1968) eloquently recounted the extent of the dramatic landscape alteration:
| Building the Overseas Railway, begun in 1905, put enormous stress on pristine terrestrial and near shore environments in the keys. Among materials imported were food, water, housing and medical supplies for a work force of 3,000 to 5,000. Construction equipment included three tugs, 30 gasoline launches, 14 houseboats, eight work boats with derricks and concrete mixers, three pile drivers on floating machine shops, six dredges powered by gasoline engines, eight stern-wheel Mississippi River steamers, and more than 100 barges. A fleet of ocean-going vessels included tramp ships carrying sand, coal, crushed rock, high-grade German underwater cement, and millions of meters of pilings, reinforcing rods, steel girders, railroad track, dressed timbers, and other materials. Cofferdams and caissons placed in tidal channels allowed anchoring of viaduct supports to bedrock. Embankments, tidal creeks, canals, and channels were dammed with marl dredged from the sea floor, some from as far away as a kilometer, then lined with riprap. In less than the seven years that it took to complete the railroad from Miami to Key West, man had radically transformed unspoiled surroundings of the keys with non-native resources. |
Industrialization
Major industries in Key West in the early 19th century included fishing, salt production, and salvage. In 1860 wrecking made the small town of Key West the largest and most wealthy city in Florida and the richest town per capita in the United States. A number of the residents worked salvaging shipwrecks from nearby Florida reefs, and the town was noted for the unusually high concentration of fine furniture and chandeliers which the locals used in their own homes after salvaging them from wrecks.Fort Zachary Taylor in Key West, popular during the Civil War, contains the largest known collection of Civil War cannons ever discovered at a single location.
More than three million visitors each year come to the Keys by both air and auto. A great majority of these tourists come to see or catch fish and other marine wildlife, contributing up to $1.2 billion to the economy of the Florida Keys. These visitors directly support charter boats for diving, snorkeling, sailing and fishing, dive shops, bait and tackle shops, marinas, restaurants, hotels, motels, and camp grounds, and, indirectly, a multitude of businesses from gas stations to barber shops.Commercial fishing is the second largest industry in the Keys. Some of the most important commercial species are spiny lobster, stone crab, pink shrimp, mackerel, grouper and snapper. Collectors of tropical fish and other marine life also profit from the reef environment. The commercial fleet supports about 1,200 families, which is close to 5 percent of the Monroe County's population. Stock Island alone lands 7 million pounds with a dockside value of $24 million — that's 5 percent of Florida's total landings and 13 percent of total value.
In 2006, Monroe County was ranked the fifth most valuable port in the nation, with a dockside value of about $54.4 million. This figure does not include retail sales and profits made by wholesalers who marketed seafood products worldwide. It's reasonable to predict that seafood and related industries earned upwards of $70 million. This does not take into account the millions of dollars of shrimp caught off Key West and landed at other ports around the Gulf of Mexico.
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