Blood, Trauma, and Biohazard Cleanup in Key Largo, FL

Key Largo is the first and largest island of the Florida Keys, stretching about 33 miles at the top of the Overseas Highway in Monroe County.

The island's name comes from the Spanish "Cayo Largo," meaning long key.

The settlement at Key Largo was called Rock Harbor until June 1, 1952, when it renamed itself Key Largo to trade on the fame of the 1948 Humphrey Bogart film of the same name.

Key Largo is an unincorporated census-designated place, and the 2020 census counted 12,447 people there.

Key Largo has about 5,300 households, roughly 76% of its homes are owner-occupied, and the median home value is around $644,000.

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park at Key Largo, created in 1960 and opened in 1963, was the first undersea park in the United States; it is named for Miami Herald editor John D. Pennekamp, who fought to protect the reef.

The bronze Christ of the Abyss statue has stood in about 25 feet of water at Key Largo Dry Rocks since 1965.

Off Key Largo's shore runs the Florida Reef, the only living coral barrier reef in the continental United States, which is why the island bills itself as the Diving Capital of the World.

Visitors to Key Largo can ride the original African Queen, the 1912 steam launch made famous by the 1951 Bogart and Hepburn film, which is preserved there and offers canal cruises.

In the late 1800s and early 1900s Key Largo farmers grew pineapples and key limes for northern markets, and Flagler's Overseas Railroad crossed the island in 1912 before the 1935 Labor Day hurricane destroyed the line.