Virginia Key
Encyclopedia
Virginia Key is a 863 acres (3.5 km²) barrier island
in Miami, Florida
, United States
in Biscayne Bay
, south of Brickell
and north of Key Biscayne
. It accessible from the mainland via the Rickenbacker Causeway
.
The island is namely occupied by the Virginia Key Beach Park, Miami Seaquarium
, and the University of Miami
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
. Other facilities include the former Miami Marine Stadium
, the National Marine Fisheries Service
Southeast Fisheries Science Center, and an office of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
inlet in Fort Lauderdale
to just north of Key Biscayne
. Early accounts by Spanish explorers indicated the existence of one or more inlets somewhere on the long spit of land enclosing the northern end of Biscayne Bay, but such inlets open and close over time. At the beginning of the 19th century, there was no inlet through the barrier island between the New River Inlet and Bear Cut, at the northern end of Key Biscayne. Hurricanes in 1835 and 1838 opened a new inlet, Narrows Cut (now known as Norris Cut), separating Virginia Key from what is now Fisher Island
at the south end of Miami Beach
.
The island was named by Frederick H. Gerdes of the United States Coast Survey in 1849. He noted that the island north of Key Biscayne had no name, and had not existed as an island until 'Narrows Cut' had broken through "ten or twelve" years before (i.e., the hurricane of 1835 or 1838). He described Virginia Key as three miles (5 km) long and one mile (1.6 km) wide (later, as five miles (8 km) long and one-and-a-half miles wide), with a fine Atlantic beach, but mostly covered with mangrove
s.
Scenes from the 1994 comedy film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
were shot here.
The struggle for a "colored-only" beach in Miami signified the incipient civil rights revolution of the 1950s -1960s. It was fueled by the seething anger of patriotic black servicemen who fought the racism of Nazi Germany only to return to a segregated America. Among the protesters was Attorney Lawson B. Thomas who would later become the first Black appointed to Judge in the post-Reconstruction South. Lawyer Thomas remained on the beach, holding bail money for those who anticipated arrest. The NAACP had notified the local press and police of the time and place, hoping for arrests that would be central to a court challenge of local discrimination laws and policies. On instruction from local government representatives, police refused to cite the protestors, telling Thomas to contact County Commissioner Charles H. Crandon.
Local businessmen and government officials had privately conceded something had to be done about the race problem. The economy was – and is – heavily reliant upon its good reputation with tourists. A decision was made to compromise race restrictions on recreation by designating a "colored-only" beach on Virginia Key. Crandon and Thomas negotiated the establishment of the "Virginia Key Beach, a Dade County Park for the exclusive use of Negroes," (today, the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park). It opened on August 1, 1945.
There are several urban myths about the selection of Virginia Key by county officials, each with a kernel of truth – but there was an historic connection of at least several decades’ standing. A 1918 survey map of the "Abandoned Military Reservation" on Virginia Key located a "Negro Dancing Pavilion" on the island’s southeastern shore of the "colored-only" beach. From 1945 to 1947, Miami’s Blacks traveled to the beach exclusively by boat – public and private. The opening of the Rickenbacker Causeway in 1947 connected Virginia Key and Key Biscayne with the mainland and vehicular travel began.
The new Park enjoyed instant popularity. For a time, county government honored the "separate but equal" status of Virginia Key Beach with its white counterpart, Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. The original temporary buildings were replaced by permanent construction, a miniature railroad carried beachgoers around the park, and a seaside merry-go-round whirled riders of all ages. Still, Crandon Park was over 800 acres (3.2 km²) with two miles (3 km) of beachfront and Virginia Key 82 acres (331,842.5 m²) with a half-mile of beach.
When Crandon Park got a zoo, Virginia Key Beach got a pond with ornamental plants and so things began to change. When wealthy residents of Key Biscayne and nearby Fisher Island needed a place to dump their garbage and pump their sewage, the breezes on Virginia Key Beach turned sour, the water clouded with effluents. The long-term environmental impact has yet to be fully determined. Still, Virginia Key Beach remained a popular, even sacred place within Miami’s Black community.
Shuttered for two decades, Virginia Key Beach was eroded by storms, its buildings damaged and vandalized, and park lands invaded by exotic plants and animals. Beset by declining revenues, some City officials began to speculate over schemes to sell off the development rights on Virginia Key. As plans leaked, a local coalition formed among Miami’s grassroots activists protesting any commercial development and asking for a complete restoration and re-opening of Miami’s largest park and only public park on the Atlantic Ocean. The more thoughtful leadership at City Hall appointed an official community-based civil rights task force to provide a public forum for the park’s future.
In time, the civil right’s task force developed into a trust that was given the charge of re-opening the park as an open green space for a multi-cultural society. The restoration process was divided into two major areas: environmental and historical. The trust undertook the daunting task of removing all exotic vegetation from the park while replenishing the landscape with native vegetation. In August, 2002 the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and given a Florida Historical Marker.
On February 22, 2008, the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust re-opened the park to he public. Today, it is known as an ecological treasure which contains the largest mangrove wetland in the state. Historic landmarks such as the bathhouse, concession stand, carousel house, train tunnel, and picnic pavilions have all been renovated and opened for public use.
The Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) is one of the Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR) Facilities of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). NOAA/AOML is a part of the US Department of Commerce (DOC) and is located in Miami, Florida. AOML's mission is to conduct basic and applied research in oceanography, tropical meteorology, atmospheric and oceanic chemistry, and acoustics. The research seeks to understand the physical characteristics and processes of the ocean and the atmosphere, both separately and as a coupled system.
Along the causeway onto Virginia Key is a long strip of bay front popular with windsurfers and sailors, called Hobie Beach after the Hobie Cats that set sail from the shore. It's also the only Miami-area beach that allows dogs. Nearby rest rooms and a great view of the curving shoreline make this an ideal place for tailgate parties.
The Miami Seaquarium
is a marine park on Virginia Key that has one of the world's largest collections of marine animals; some 10,000 specimens. Open in 1955, the 38 acre (150,000 m2) park provides marine life exhibits and several daily marine mammal shows. It is famous for its captive orca
s, dolphin
s, and sea lion
s. Manatee
and shark
exhibits are also present.
The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
, founded by F.G. Walton Smith, is the University of Miami
's graduate school of marine and atmospheric science. Dr. Otis Brown is the Dean of the Rosenstiel School. Located on a 16 acre (65,000 m2) campus on Virginia Key in Miami, it is the only tropical applied and basic marine and atmospheric research institute of its kind in the continental United States. The Rosenstiel School conducts a broad range of research on local, regional, national and global levels. More than 100 Ph.D. faculty members, 150 graduate students and a research support and administrative staff of 250 comprise the academic community.
The Maritime and Science Technology (MAST) Academy
public magnet school is located on Virginia Key. Several hundred high school specially-selected students from Miami get their education at MAST Academy.
park was officially opened to the public. Constructed by nearly one hundred volunteers and over three months, the park features many novice, intermediate and advanced trails. It is located just past Jimbo's on Arthur Lamb Jr. road on the north tip of Virginia Key.
Shoal
Shoal, shoals or shoaling may mean:* Shoal, a sandbank or reef creating shallow water, especially where it forms a hazard to shipping* Shoal draught , of a boat with shallow draught which can pass over some shoals: see Draft...
in Miami, Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in Biscayne Bay
Biscayne Bay
Biscayne Bay is a lagoon that is approximately 35 miles long and up to 8 miles wide located on the Atlantic coast of South Florida, United States. It is usually divided for purposes of discussion and analysis into three parts: North Bay, Central Bay, and South Bay. Its area is...
, south of Brickell
Brickell
Brickell is an urban neighborhood in Miami, Florida, United States. A neighborhood of greater Downtown Miami, Brickell is Miami and South Florida's major financial district.-Background:...
and north of Key Biscayne
Key Biscayne
Key Biscayne is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies south of Miami Beach and southeast of Miami...
. It accessible from the mainland via the Rickenbacker Causeway
Rickenbacker Causeway
The Rickenbacker Causeway connects Miami, Florida, United States to the barrier islands of Virginia Key and Key Biscayne across Biscayne Bay.-Background:...
.
The island is namely occupied by the Virginia Key Beach Park, Miami Seaquarium
Miami Seaquarium
The Miami Seaquarium is a oceanarium located on the island of Virginia Key in Biscayne Bay, Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States and is located near downtown Miami. It is the longest operating oceanarium in the United States. In addition to the marine mammals, the Miami Seaquarium also...
, and the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science is a college and research institute for the study of oceanography and the atmospheric sciences within the University of Miami . It is located on a 16 acre campus on Virginia Key in Miami, Florida, USA...
. Other facilities include the former Miami Marine Stadium
Miami Marine Stadium
The Miami Marine Stadium is a marine stadium on Virginia Key, Miami, Florida, United States. The facility, built and completed in 1963 on land donated to the City of Miami from the Matheson family, is the first stadium purpose-built for powerboat racing in the United States.-History:The 6,566 seat...
, the National Marine Fisheries Service
National Marine Fisheries Service
The National Marine Fisheries Service is a United States federal agency. A division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Commerce, NMFS is responsible for the stewardship and management of the nation's living marine resources and their habitat within the...
Southeast Fisheries Science Center, and an office of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
History
What is now Virginia Key was the southern end of a barrier island that extended from the New RiverNew River (Broward County, Florida)
The New River is a river in South Florida, USA. The river originates in the Everglades and flows east. After passing through Fort Lauderdale, the river enters the Atlantic Ocean at Port Everglades cut. The river is entirely within Broward County and is composed from the junction of three main...
inlet in Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale is a city in the U.S. state of Florida, on the Atlantic coast. It is the county seat of Broward County. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 165,521. It is a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which was home to 5,564,635 people at the 2010...
to just north of Key Biscayne
Key Biscayne
Key Biscayne is an island located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay. It is the southernmost of the barrier islands along the Atlantic coast of Florida, and lies south of Miami Beach and southeast of Miami...
. Early accounts by Spanish explorers indicated the existence of one or more inlets somewhere on the long spit of land enclosing the northern end of Biscayne Bay, but such inlets open and close over time. At the beginning of the 19th century, there was no inlet through the barrier island between the New River Inlet and Bear Cut, at the northern end of Key Biscayne. Hurricanes in 1835 and 1838 opened a new inlet, Narrows Cut (now known as Norris Cut), separating Virginia Key from what is now Fisher Island
Fisher Island, Florida
Fisher Island is a neighborhood of metropolitan Miami, Florida, located on a barrier island of the same name. As of the 2000 census, Fisher Island had the highest per capita income of any place in the United States in 2000. The CDP had only 218 households and a total population of 467 persons...
at the south end of Miami Beach
Miami Beach, Florida
Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, incorporated on March 26, 1915. The municipality is located on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter which separates the Beach from Miami city proper...
.
The island was named by Frederick H. Gerdes of the United States Coast Survey in 1849. He noted that the island north of Key Biscayne had no name, and had not existed as an island until 'Narrows Cut' had broken through "ten or twelve" years before (i.e., the hurricane of 1835 or 1838). He described Virginia Key as three miles (5 km) long and one mile (1.6 km) wide (later, as five miles (8 km) long and one-and-a-half miles wide), with a fine Atlantic beach, but mostly covered with mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
s.
Scenes from the 1994 comedy film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective is a 1994 American comedy film directed by Tom Shadyac and starring Jim Carrey. It co-stars Courteney Cox, Tone Loc, Sean Young and former Miami Dolphins quarterback Dan Marino....
were shot here.
Virginia Key Beach Park
In May 1945, seven civil rights activists supported by the local NAACP chapter staged a "wade-in" at the whites’ only Baker’s Haulover Beach in Dade County Florida. Five men and two women protested Jim Crow era laws that denied access to recreation based on race. In a Miami emerging from World War II this meant "colored" people could not share with whites the legendary beaches along and in the waters of Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.The struggle for a "colored-only" beach in Miami signified the incipient civil rights revolution of the 1950s -1960s. It was fueled by the seething anger of patriotic black servicemen who fought the racism of Nazi Germany only to return to a segregated America. Among the protesters was Attorney Lawson B. Thomas who would later become the first Black appointed to Judge in the post-Reconstruction South. Lawyer Thomas remained on the beach, holding bail money for those who anticipated arrest. The NAACP had notified the local press and police of the time and place, hoping for arrests that would be central to a court challenge of local discrimination laws and policies. On instruction from local government representatives, police refused to cite the protestors, telling Thomas to contact County Commissioner Charles H. Crandon.
Local businessmen and government officials had privately conceded something had to be done about the race problem. The economy was – and is – heavily reliant upon its good reputation with tourists. A decision was made to compromise race restrictions on recreation by designating a "colored-only" beach on Virginia Key. Crandon and Thomas negotiated the establishment of the "Virginia Key Beach, a Dade County Park for the exclusive use of Negroes," (today, the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park). It opened on August 1, 1945.
There are several urban myths about the selection of Virginia Key by county officials, each with a kernel of truth – but there was an historic connection of at least several decades’ standing. A 1918 survey map of the "Abandoned Military Reservation" on Virginia Key located a "Negro Dancing Pavilion" on the island’s southeastern shore of the "colored-only" beach. From 1945 to 1947, Miami’s Blacks traveled to the beach exclusively by boat – public and private. The opening of the Rickenbacker Causeway in 1947 connected Virginia Key and Key Biscayne with the mainland and vehicular travel began.
The new Park enjoyed instant popularity. For a time, county government honored the "separate but equal" status of Virginia Key Beach with its white counterpart, Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. The original temporary buildings were replaced by permanent construction, a miniature railroad carried beachgoers around the park, and a seaside merry-go-round whirled riders of all ages. Still, Crandon Park was over 800 acres (3.2 km²) with two miles (3 km) of beachfront and Virginia Key 82 acres (331,842.5 m²) with a half-mile of beach.
When Crandon Park got a zoo, Virginia Key Beach got a pond with ornamental plants and so things began to change. When wealthy residents of Key Biscayne and nearby Fisher Island needed a place to dump their garbage and pump their sewage, the breezes on Virginia Key Beach turned sour, the water clouded with effluents. The long-term environmental impact has yet to be fully determined. Still, Virginia Key Beach remained a popular, even sacred place within Miami’s Black community.
Park decline and restoration
Segregation of Miami-Dade beaches finally ended in the early 1960s with another protest led by the late Rev. Theodore Gibson, Garth C. Reeves, the late Oscar Range and others. Crandon Park and Virginia Key Beach would no longer be used exclusively by one race or another, but open for all to enjoy. When beaches closer to historically Black residential neighborhoods desegregated, Virginia Key Beach gradually declined both in use and upkeep. By the 1980s, picnicking families mingled with gay couples and nudists using Virginia Key Beach, too. In 1982, the County transferred the former colored-only park to the City of Miami with a deed restriction that it only be used as a park and that the City continued the level of services and maintenance. The City closed the Park shortly thereafter citing high maintenance costs.Shuttered for two decades, Virginia Key Beach was eroded by storms, its buildings damaged and vandalized, and park lands invaded by exotic plants and animals. Beset by declining revenues, some City officials began to speculate over schemes to sell off the development rights on Virginia Key. As plans leaked, a local coalition formed among Miami’s grassroots activists protesting any commercial development and asking for a complete restoration and re-opening of Miami’s largest park and only public park on the Atlantic Ocean. The more thoughtful leadership at City Hall appointed an official community-based civil rights task force to provide a public forum for the park’s future.
In time, the civil right’s task force developed into a trust that was given the charge of re-opening the park as an open green space for a multi-cultural society. The restoration process was divided into two major areas: environmental and historical. The trust undertook the daunting task of removing all exotic vegetation from the park while replenishing the landscape with native vegetation. In August, 2002 the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and given a Florida Historical Marker.
On February 22, 2008, the Virginia Key Beach Park Trust re-opened the park to he public. Today, it is known as an ecological treasure which contains the largest mangrove wetland in the state. Historic landmarks such as the bathhouse, concession stand, carousel house, train tunnel, and picnic pavilions have all been renovated and opened for public use.
Special features
Along the causeway onto Virginia Key is a long strip of bay front popular with windsurfers and sailors, called Hobie Beach after the Hobie Cats that set sail from the shore. It's also the only Miami-area beach that allows dogs. Nearby rest rooms and a great view of the curving shoreline make this an ideal place for tailgate parties.
The Miami Seaquarium
Miami Seaquarium
The Miami Seaquarium is a oceanarium located on the island of Virginia Key in Biscayne Bay, Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States and is located near downtown Miami. It is the longest operating oceanarium in the United States. In addition to the marine mammals, the Miami Seaquarium also...
is a marine park on Virginia Key that has one of the world's largest collections of marine animals; some 10,000 specimens. Open in 1955, the 38 acre (150,000 m2) park provides marine life exhibits and several daily marine mammal shows. It is famous for its captive orca
Orca
The killer whale , commonly referred to as the orca, and less commonly as the blackfish, is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family. Killer whales are found in all oceans, from the frigid Arctic and Antarctic regions to tropical seas...
s, dolphin
Dolphin
Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...
s, and sea lion
Sea Lion
Sea lions are pinnipeds characterized by external ear-flaps, long fore-flippers, the ability to walk on all fours, and short thick hair. Together with the fur seal, they comprise the family Otariidae, or eared seals. There are six extant and one extinct species in five genera...
s. Manatee
Manatee
Manatees are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows...
and shark
Shark
Sharks are a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago....
exhibits are also present.
The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science
The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science is a college and research institute for the study of oceanography and the atmospheric sciences within the University of Miami . It is located on a 16 acre campus on Virginia Key in Miami, Florida, USA...
, founded by F.G. Walton Smith, is the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
's graduate school of marine and atmospheric science. Dr. Otis Brown is the Dean of the Rosenstiel School. Located on a 16 acre (65,000 m2) campus on Virginia Key in Miami, it is the only tropical applied and basic marine and atmospheric research institute of its kind in the continental United States. The Rosenstiel School conducts a broad range of research on local, regional, national and global levels. More than 100 Ph.D. faculty members, 150 graduate students and a research support and administrative staff of 250 comprise the academic community.
The Maritime and Science Technology (MAST) Academy
MAST Academy
Maritime and Science Technology Academy, commonly referred to as MAST Academy, or MAST, is a public high school in Miami, Florida, on Virginia Key. MAST Academy is a magnet school under the governance of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The school's principal is Jane Garraux, appointed in August...
public magnet school is located on Virginia Key. Several hundred high school specially-selected students from Miami get their education at MAST Academy.
Bike trails
In 2011, a mountain bikingMountain biking
Mountain biking is a sport which consists of riding bicycles off-road, often over rough terrain, using specially adapted mountain bikes. Mountain bikes share similarities with other bikes, but incorporate features designed to enhance durability and performance in rough terrain.Mountain biking can...
park was officially opened to the public. Constructed by nearly one hundred volunteers and over three months, the park features many novice, intermediate and advanced trails. It is located just past Jimbo's on Arthur Lamb Jr. road on the north tip of Virginia Key.