The Florida Keys were ground zero for the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane, a devastating Category 5 storm — in fact, the strongest recorded hurricane to hit the United States.

As the large red-and-black hurricane warning flags went up along the Keys and his barometer indicated a serious drop in pressure, the foreman for hundreds of workers who were building a road from Lower Matecumbe to Grassy Key became alarmed. The Florida East Coast Railway, pictured, suffered extensive damage and lost dozens of workers. After roaring through the Keys, the hurricane turned gradually northward almost parallel to the Florida west coast until it again made landfall near Cedar Key as a Category 2 hurricane on the 4th. Download the Keys Hurricane Travel Safety Guide. Though it was not rebuilt after being damaged in a 1935 hurricane, Flagler's railroad is still lauded for its monumental impact as the centennial of its completion is celebrated in the Keys.

The hurricane claimed at least 485 lives, including about 260 World War I veterans working on a section of the Overseas Highway in a federal relief project. The Florida Keys hurricane left 164 people dead in October 1906. The Florida Keys have no train service running since 1935, when the last train left Key West and got hit by the big Labor Day hurricane. It … So that was that, and although Amtrak are probably the best and most well known of the train operators running across the whole of America, they will only take you as far as Fort Lauderdale. Over the next two decades, the Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad carried thousands of passengers between Miami and Key West. On September 2, 1935, a powerful hurricane slammed into the middle Florida Keys. A Category 5 hurricane hit the Florida Keys on Labor Day, September 2, 1935.
Known as the Labor Day Hurricane, it was the first Category 5 storm to strike the United States in recorded history. In the Florida Keys, the same forces that create balmy breezes and warm waves also can bring high winds, heavy rain and tidal surges. The Florida Keys are no stranger to hurricanes, or to the death and destruction that have followed their worst storms.