1950 American Automobile Association Overseas Highway Road Map, Florida Keys

A charming 1950 American Automobile Association (AAA) map of Southern Florida highlighting the Overseas Highway (U.S. 1) running through the Florida Keys. Adorned with photographs and illustrations, it combines function and aesthetics, and highlights fishing in the region, one of the region's main attractions for tourists and residents alike.

A Closer Look

The scope of the map takes in the southernmost portion of Florida, with the route of U.S. 1 from Miami to Key West bolded. The individual keys are meticulously noted, while illustrations of major attractions surround the road map. A previous owner has added notations of other points of interest along or near the road, including the Naval Air Station, toll booths, bridges, and more. Text on the verso provides information about the history and financing of the highway, attractions along its route, and a section on Key West.

The Overseas Highway is the southernmost portion of U.S. Route 1 running from Miami to Key Largo and through the Florida Keys. An impressive piece of engineering, the highway passes through more than a dozen keys, terminating at Key West, with intervening portions consisting of bridges (including the famous Seven Mile Bridge). It was constructed in the wake of the Florida Land Boom of the 1920s.

Originally meant to supplement the preexisting Overseas Railroad, which was unable to meet the demands of the growing population of the Keys, construction began in the mid-1920s on Key Largo. When the 'Labor Day Hurricane' of 1935 destroyed much of the railroad (and portions of the uncompleted highway), the Florida East Coast Railway sold the railroad's right of way to the state and the route of the Overseas Highway came to largely follow that of the earlier railroad. Railroad bridges were converted to automobile roadways and the entire route to Key West opened in 1938.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced by the American Automobile Association and the Overseas Road and Toll Bridge District, a state body designed to lobby for federal funds, in 1950. It is held by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the Newberry Library and is scarce to the market.