Editing Key West (section)

===20th century===
[[File:Florida - Key West - NARA - 23936665 (cropped).jpg|thumb|The railway yard and station on Trumbo Point in Key West, {{Circa|1930}}]]
In October 1909, Key West was devastated by the [[1909 Florida Keys hurricane]]. Further damage was suffered the following year in the [[1910 Cuba hurricane]].

Key West was relatively isolated until 1912, when it was connected to the Florida mainland via the [[Overseas Railway]] extension of [[Henry Flagler|Henry M. Flagler's]] [[Florida East Coast Railway]] (FEC). Flagler created a landfill at [[Trumbo Point]] for his railyards.

The [[1919 Florida Keys hurricane]] caused catastrophic damage to the area.

On December 25, 1921, [[Lynching of Manuel Cabeza|Manuel Cabeza was lynched]] by members of the [[Ku Klux Klan]] for living with a black woman.{{sfn|Newton|2016|p=64}}

[[Pan American Airlines]] was founded in Key West, originally to fly visitors to Havana, in 1926. The airline contracted with the United States Postal Service in 1927 to deliver mail to and from Cuba and the United States. The mail route was known as the ''Key West, Florida – Havana Mail Route''.

The [[Labor Day Hurricane of 1935]] destroyed much of the Overseas Railway and killed hundreds of residents, including around 400 [[World War I]] veterans who were living in camps and working on federal road and mosquito-control projects in the Middle Keys. The FEC could not afford to restore the railroad.

The [[Federal government of the United States|U.S. government]] then rebuilt the rail route as an automobile highway, completed in 1938, built atop many of the footings of the railroad. It became an extension of [[U.S. Route 1 in Florida|U.S. Route 1]]. The portion of U.S. 1 through the Keys is called the [[Overseas Highway]].  [[Franklin Roosevelt]] toured the road in 1939.

During [[World War II]], more than 14,000 ships came through the island's harbor. The population, because of an influx of soldiers, sailors, laborers, and tourists, sometimes doubled or even tripled at times during the war.<ref>Gibson, A. H. (2012). American Gibraltar: Key West during World War II. The Florida Historical Quarterly, 90(4), 393–425. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23264714, pp. 396</ref>

Starting in 1946, US President [[Harry S. Truman]] established a working vacation home in Key West, the [[Harry S. Truman Little White House]], where he would spend 175 days of his presidency.

In 1948, Key West suffered damage from two hurricanes within as many months, from the [[September 1948 Florida hurricane]] then the [[1948 Miami hurricane]].

Prior to the [[Cuban revolution]] of 1959, there were regular ferry and airplane services between Key West and Havana.

[[John F. Kennedy]] was to use "90 miles from Cuba" extensively in his speeches against [[Fidel Castro]]. Kennedy himself visited Key West a month after the resolution of the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]].

[[File:Hurricane Georges center over Key West September 25, 1998.png|thumb|The center of Hurricane Georges passes over Key West on September&nbsp;25,&nbsp;1998.]]
In 1982, the city of Key West briefly asserted independence as the [[Conch Republic]] as a protest over a [[United States Border Patrol]] [[blockade]]. This blockade was set up on [[U.S. Route 1 in Florida|US 1]], where the northern end of the Overseas Highway meets the mainland at [[Florida City]]. A traffic jam of {{convert|17|mi|km}} ensued while the [[United States Border Patrol|Border Patrol]] stopped every car leaving the Keys, supposedly searching for illegal immigrants attempting to enter the mainland United States. This paralyzed the Florida Keys, which rely heavily on the tourism industry. Flags, T-shirts and other merchandise representing the Conch Republic are still popular souvenirs for visitors to Key West, and the Conch Republic Independence Celebration—including parades and parties—is celebrated annually, on April 23.

In 1998, [[Hurricane Georges]] damaged the city.

In 2017, [[Hurricane Irma]] caused [[Effects of Hurricane Irma in Florida#Florida Keys|substantial damage]] with wind and flooding, killing three people.