The Florida Keys - Key Largo and Key West

The numerious cayes and coral reefs of the Florida Keys help make this area a major diving attraction. These 1,000 plus islands are a series of mangrove swamps, keys and coral reefs. Their diving attraction is enhance by a number ofl ships that have sunk in the reefs. In fact many of the ships are there on purpose, as a part of creating artificial reefs in the Florida Keys. One BIG SHIP that was schedule to be sunk on May 15th 2008 is the Vandenberg. However, due to environmental clean up costs associated with removing any toxic effects that would be associated with sinking the ship and the hurricane season, they have moved the sinking date back to later in the year.

Some great dive site by island are
Islamorada and Tavernier: Davis Reef, Crocker Reef and the sunk vessel Eagle ( 287 foot freighter)
Marathon: Thunderbolt (US army cable vessle), Samantha's reef.
Lower Keys: Adolphus Busch Sr (210 ft freighter) , Looe Key reef system
Key West: USAFS Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg (520 ft wreck), Kaystack a coral formation

The islands were only accessable by boat until Flagler, a partner with JD Rockefeller, decided to build a series of railroads and bridges that connected these remote islands with the mainland. After several years of construction and millions of dollars in cost, Flagler's Folly, became a reality in 1912 but bankrupt the Florida East Coast Railway. In 1935 a hurricane demolished the railroad and drove the final stake into the Florida East Coast Railway. Photos courtesy of Stephen Frink and Scuba Dive Magazine
Vacation Rentals in Key Largo, Key West