Key Biscayne Commerce & Culture
Modern-day Key Biscayne wasn't incorporated until 1991, making it the first new Miami-Date city to incorporate in half a century. Development here didn't take off until after World War II, and in the years prior, most of the isle was occupied by what was then the largest coconut plantation in the entire continental United States. While its middle is well-packed with a mix of single-family homes, condominiums, and hotels, the upper and lower thirds of Key Biscayne have been largely left to nature, well stewarded by parks and a golf course. The wrecks of a half-dozen ships that met their fate on the isle's notoriously rugged reefs—they prompted the construction of the Cape Florida Lighthouse in 1825—today compose the Maritime Heritage Trail, a popular diving spot and the nation's only federally-recognized underwater archaeological trail.