SPACEPHOTOS

This south-looking, low-oblique photograph captures the southernmost city in the continental United States, Key West, with the runways of the Key West Naval Air Station obvious near the center of the photograph. The island of Key West [4 miles (6 kilometers) long and 2 miles (3 kilometers) wide and located 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of the southern tip of Florida] is one of the Florida Keys, a chain of small coral and limestone islands and reefs that curves southwest for 150 miles (240 kilometers) from just south of Miami Beach to Key West. The causeway connecting the mainland with Key West was completed in 1938, just 3 years after the city was rebuilt following extensive hurricane damage. Many of the islands are habitable; they are generally covered with dense growths of low trees, shrubs, and mangrove swamps. The Florida Keys are noted for their tropical vegetation, commercial fisheries, and resorts. Especially popular in winter, Key West is an artist colony, a fishing resort, a commercial shrimping and fishing center, and a cigar manufacturing site.