mismanagement that led to a Congressional investigation. Just west of Lower Matecumbe Key at Mile Marker 73 on the current highway, eight concrete bridge piers and a small dredged island are all that remains of the veterans' work. The dredged island is now known as Veteran's Key and the piers remain as a tribute to the veterans with a memorial plaque on Craig Key. After the hurricane, the Florida East Coast Railway was financially unable to rebuild the damaged sections of the Overseas Railroad. Seizing a rare opportunity, the state purchased the railroad's entire right of way and remaining infrastructure for a price of $640,000. The Overseas Road and Toll Bridge District abandoned its original highway plans and made new plans to build the highway on the old rail bed from Lower Matecumbe Key to Little Torch Key, effectively connecting the two segments of State Road 4A. The railroad's bridges, which withstood the hurricane and were in good condition, were retrofitted with new two-lane wide concrete surfaces for automobile use. In the case of the Bahia Honda Rail Bridge, which was a truss bridge, the concrete road surface was built on top of the trusses. The conversion of the railroad bridges to automobile use was accomplished by Cleary Brothers Construction Co. of West Palm Beach, and the entire route to Key West was opened to the public in 1938. Portions of the road were tolled until April 15, 1954; toll booths were located on Big Pine Key and Lower Matecumbe Key. Pigeon Key, roughly the midway point of the Seven Mile Bridge, served as the headquarters for the "Overseas Road and Toll District." The toll for automobiles was $1, plus 25 cents per passenger. The full highway from the mainland to Key West was officially opened for traffic on March 29, 1938 and upon completion, the route became the southernmost segment of U.S. Route 1, which previously terminated in Miami (State Road 4A would remain as a hidden designation until the 1945 Florida State Road renumbering, when the hidden designation became State Road 5). President Franklin D. Roosevelt toured the road in 1939. At this time, the Overseas Highway only ran along the old railroad route in the middle keys; the original highway segments were still in use in the upper and lower keys. As the United States entered into World War II, the U.S. Navy sought improvements to the