Key Largo is connected to
the mainland in Miami-Dade County by two routes. The Overseas
Highway,which is U.S. Route 1, crosses Jewfish Creek from the middle of the
island to the
extreme southeastern part of the mainland, while the Card Sound Bridge connects
the northern
part of the island across Biscayne Bay to the mainland. Both routes lead to
Florida City.
Key Largo is a popular tourist
destination and calls itself the "Diving Capital of the World".
Tourists enjoy Key Largo's scuba diving and sports-fishing. Its proximity to
the Everglades
also makes it a premier destination for kayakers and ecotourists. Automotive
and highway
pioneer and Miami Beach developer Carl G. Fisher built Key Largo's famous Caribbean
Club in
1938 as his last project.
The island gained fame as
the setting for the 1947 Humphrey Bogart-Lauren Bacall film Key Largo,
although it was filmed entirely on a Warner Brothers sound stage in Hollywood.[2]
The town of Rock
Harbor changed its name to Key Largo after the film's success.
There are three census-designated
places on Key Largo: North Key Largo, near the Card sound
Bridge, Key Largo, eight or nine miles from the southern end of the island,
and Tavernier, at the
southern end of the island. Ocean Reef Club is a private gated community at
the northern end of the island.
Key Largo is situated between
Everglades National Park to the north-west and John Pennekamp Coral
Reef State Park to the east, the first underwater park in the United States
and the site of the only living
coral barrier reef in the continental United States.