December 17

Building the Seven Mile Bridge, ca. 1980.

1915 – A fire destroyed the large cigar factory of E.H. Gato at the corner of Simonton and Virginia streets in Key West. Six buildings on Virginia Street were also destroyed. The property loss was over $150,000, and 500 men were thrown out of work.

1925 – The Key West City Council approved a $5,000 expenditure for public band concerts to be held in Bayview Park. The funds would cover performances for the three-month winter season.

1935 – The Monroe County Young Men’s Democratic Club was organized at a meeting in the showroom of the Meltzer Motor Company in Key West. Wm. M. Arnold was elected president, and Wm. A. Freeman was made first vice-president.

1949 – President Harry Truman walked from the Little White House in Key West to the Fleet Sonar School, where he awarded diplomas to 36 men who were graduating.

1955 – The Florida Health Department’s mobile X-ray unit made its last call to the Keys for 1955 and performed 462 chest X-rays. For the year, it had made a total of 7,481 such examinations throughout Monroe County. The X-rays were used to screen for tuberculosis.

1979 – Robert “Speedy” Neal, Key West High School football star, was named to the All-American High School team.

1985 – The new Seven Mile Bridge and the Long Key Bridge, both completed in 1982, were suffering from structural problems. Guardrails on the Seven Mile Bridge were spalling, and elements of the underside were deteriorating. Issues with the Long Key Bridge required that a model of it be built in Tallahassee so engineers could conduct stress tests. 

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Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.

Image: Building the Seven Mile Bridge, ca. 1980. Wright Langley Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.