Historic Port of Key West (Key West Bight Marina).

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Key West, Florida, USA

A walk around the city will definitely lead you to the pier (to the port), where you will see many, many different ships in the parking lot. It cannot be bypassed.
There is a parking lot for yachts, and a pier for cruise liners is also nearby.
Very picturesque place, where it is nice to just walk around.
And how many wonderful restaurants and cafes are there where you can try any seafood and, of course, oysters.|
This is a historic port (Key West Bight Marina), which for the last 200 years has been the center of life on this island, in which cultural and economic life was in full swing.
You can also see or hear it as Key West Historic Seaport.

The history of this port is interesting, I generally like such historical angles, I always read and imagine myself at that time in this place, and see what it was like.

Imagine, once upon a time, somewhere in the late 1700s, some fishing boats, and fishing boats too, passed by an uninhabited island, which at that time bore the name "Cayo Hueso", which they once discovered.
The island was uninhabited, surrounded by a natural deep-sea harbor, and sailors began to use this island for their stops on their way from one place to another.
The island had enough drinking water, it was absolutely safe, which served as regular stops for various ships on its shore during coastal navigation.

When the first settlers settled on the island, it was already in 1822, they founded a food warehouse, established themselves and began to develop the island, making it a food and economic base for passing ships.
There were no problems with food, since a huge number and variety of marine life lived in the waters of the island.

Soon the island became famous for its turtle meat, and sea turtle fishing became the main one for many years.
One species of turtle, the green turtle "Chelonia Mydas" grew very quickly to large sizes, over 300 pounds, and was very easy to catch.
Turtle meat began to be supplied from the island to the best restaurants in the country for many years, until at the end of 1971 a law was passed completely banning the catching of turtles, as, as a result of overfishing, their population was greatly reduced.

Key West, Florida, USA

And since 1949, "Pink Gold Rush" broke out here.
Populations of pink shrimp have been found in the waters of Key West Bay. There were so many of them that hundreds of fishing trawlers rushed to the island, the news of the shrimp spread throughout the country.
And this period was called the “pink gold rush”, because a huge number of these same shrimps were caught, and fortunes were made in this fishery.
It was during this historical period that most of the embankment was improved and expanded in order to make it as suitable as possible for the shrimp fishery.
This era began to fade after 1980, and by 1990 it was gone, and the shrimp dealers completely disappeared from the port. The rose gold rush finally ceased to exist.

Key West, Florida, USA

Now there are many restaurants and shops in the port where you can not only eat your favorite seafood, but also buy fresh fish and other seafood.
In general, a place to walk and relax.
Let me just remind you that we ended up on a rainy and hot day, where we had to either wait out the rain under the canopy of some restaurant and shop, or, then, walk in the hot sun, when we really wanted to get into the shade.
But just imagine how nice it is here in the evening, at sunset!

So sit on a bench and look at all this beauty!

Key West, Florida, USA

A few videos from this walk.

All photos and videos are the property of the author.

To be continued...

See previous posts about our trip to Key West here:

Trip to Key West, Florida.

Willie T's restaurant and bar on Key West.

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