This Monday, Jan. 10, 2022, drone aerial photograph provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau shows the Old Seven Mile Bridge acceptable for its Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, reopening to pedestrians, bicyclists, anglers and visitors to Pigeon Key (island shown successful photo). The aged span primitively was portion of Henry Flagler's Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad that was completed successful 1912. The railroad ceased operations successful 1935 and was converted into a road that opened successful 1938. In 1982, operation was completed connected a caller Seven Mile Bridge, behind, that continues to transportation centrifugal vehicles betwixt the South Florida mainland passim the Keys to Key West. (Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau via AP)

MARATHON, Fla. – A conception of a 110-year-old Florida Keys span is reopening to pedestrians and bicyclists connected Wednesday pursuing a $44 cardinal restoration project.

Rehabilitation operation connected the oft-photographed 2.2-mile (3.5-km) span of the Old Seven Mile Bridge began successful precocious 2017.

“What made the task challenging was that it is simply a historical bridge, and we had to reconstruct the span to the aforesaid aesthetic cloth arsenic the original,” said task manager Tony Sabbag, a Florida Department of Transportation contractor.

Nicknamed “Old Seven,” the span was completed successful 1912 arsenic portion of Henry Flagler’s Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad that connected the Keys with each different and mainland Florida. The span is the gateway to historical Pigeon Key, a tiny land beneath it that erstwhile housed 400 railroad operation workers.

In 1938, the railroad span was converted to transportation automobiles. In 1982, the caller Seven Mile Bridge, really 6.79 miles (10.9 kilometers) long, debuted alongside the historical one, whose alloy plaything span that facilitated marine postulation betwixt the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico was removed.

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The retired “Old Seven” became a fashionable recreation country and appeared successful respective films including “True Lies,” a 1994 action-comedy starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jamie Lee Curtis.

Wednesday’s precocious greeting ribbon-cutting ceremonial volition beryllium the crowning infinitesimal of a 30-year, $77 cardinal statement inked successful 2013 betwixt Monroe County, the City of Marathon and the Florida Department of Transportation. That statement funded restoration and attraction to sphere the iconic landmark listed connected the National Register of Historic Places.

“The Old Seven Mile Bridge is important to the Keys, the past of the Keys and a viaduct to get to Pigeon Key,” said Monroe County Administrator Roman Gastesi.

Restoration included structural alloy and span associated strategy repairs, caller decking, pedestrian and bicycle handrails and different enhancements.

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