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Key Biscayne is an island that lies south of Miami Beach and east of Miami. It and nearby Virginia Key form the first (northernmost) of the Florida Keys, a chain of islands off the South East coast of Florida, the last (southernmost) being Key West. Visitors can reach Key Biscayne from the mainland by driving over the Rickenbacker Causeway, a roadway and series of bridges that span Biscayne Bay. Key Biscayne is part of the same geological formation as the Florida Keys, which sit atop coral rock islands, as well as partly-submerged mangrove swamps.
The Key (from the Spanish word cayo, for "island") is connected to Miami via the Rickenbacker Causeway, originally built in 1947. Because of its low elevation and direct exposure to the Atlantic Ocean, it is usually among the first Miami areas to be evacuated before an oncoming hurricane.
The Key is home to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park and, along with parts of Biscayne Bay, forms Biscayne National Park.
Since 1985, a major professional tennis tournament for both men and women has been held annually in Key Biscayne. Currently known as the NASDAQ-100 Open, the event was formerly the Lipton Tennis Championships from 1985 to 1999 and the Ericsson Open from 1999 to 2002.
Key Biscayne is located at 25°41'25" North, 80°9'54" West (25.690329, -80.165118) 1The following is a list of sources used in the creation of Wikipedia articles on various geographic topics and locations, such as cities, counties, states, and countries. These sources are cited within the thousands of articles which link to this page..
According to the United States Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau (officially Bureau of the Census is a part of the United States Department of Commerce. Its mission is defined in the Constitution of the United States, which directs that the population be enumerated at least once every te, the village has a total area of 3.6 km˛ (1.4 mi˛This article is about the unit of measure. In England, the Square Mile is a traditional name for the City of London. A square mile (symbol sq. or mi is an imperial unit which is the area of a square whose side is one mile (or 5,280 feet). A square mile is). 3.3 km˛ (1.3 mi˛) of it is land and 0.3 km˛ (0.1 mi˛) of it is water. The total area is 8.63% water.
Native Americans of the Tequesta tribe were the first inhabitants of Key Biscayne, arriving by dugout canoe. They used the island as a base for fishing, collecting shellfish and hunting for sea turtle eggs. Juan Ponce de Leon charted Key Biscayne on his first mission to the New World in 1513. He christened the island Santa Marta and claimed it for the Spanish Crown. The island served as a source of fresh water for Spanish ships but the island was not colonized by the Spanish Empire perhaps because of the treacherous reefs, constantly shifting sandbars and unpredictability of tropical storms.
After Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821, the federal government built the Cape Florida lighthouse at the southern tip of Key Biscayne in 1825. On July 23, 1836, the lighthouse was attacked and burned by Native Americans of the Seminole tribe during the Second Seminole War. An assistant lighthouse keeper was killed and the lighthouse was abandoned until the end of the war in 1842.
In 1846, U.S. Congress appropriated $23,000 to rebuild the lighthouse and work was completed in 1847. In 1861, Confederate militants sabotaged the lighthouse so that it could not guide Union sailors during the blockade of Confederate Florida. The lighthouse was repaired and re-lit again in 1866.
Early in the 20th Century, two-thirds of Key Biscayne was farmed as the largest coconut plantation in the continental United States. It wasn't until the construction of the seven-mile Rickenbacker Causeway in 1947 that the island became a convenient place to live. The Mackle Construction Company built hundreds of ranch and cottage homes for returning Korean War veterans in the 1950s. Fishing, boating and beachcombing were popular pastimes for the working class residents of the new suburban island community.
President Richard Nixon purchased the first of his three waterfront Mackle homes in 1969 to be close to his close friend and confidant, Bebe Rebozo . Bebe Rebozo, owner of the Key Biscayne Bank, was indicted for laundering a $100,000 donation from Howard Hughes to the Nixon election campaign. Plans for the Watergate break-in at Democratic headquarters were discussed at the Key Biscayne Nixon compound and, as the Watergate scandal unfolded, Nixon spent more time in seclusion there. Nixon visited Key Biscayne more than 50 times between 1969 and 1973. The U.S. Department of Defense spent $400,000 constructing a helicopter landing pad in Biscayne Bay adjacent to the Nixon compound and when Nixon sold his property, including the helicopter pad, there were public accusations that he enriched himself at taxpayer expense.
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew destroyed many homes and businesses on Key Biscayne but uninhabited Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park received the brunt of the storm. Fear of hurricanes did not deter construction of several large resort hotels, condominium complexes and shopping centers on the island as the once bucolic island life continued to accelerate at a frenetic pace. Key Biscayne increasingly caters to an elite population of business moguls, high-income professionals, and a significant influx of Latin American tourists and part-time residents fleeing political and economic instability in their home countries.