About the Author

After seventeen years as a college professor, Dan Gallagher came to the Florida Keys in 1988 to become a professional boat captain, environmental guide, editor, and writer. The history of the Keys, particularly the Florida East Coast Railway, quickly became his main interest and the subject of his book Florida's Great Ocean Railway: Building the Key West Extension. He also wrote Pigeon Key and the Seven-Mile Bridge and Marathon: Heart of the Key West Extension, as well as several chapters of Florida Keys Environmental Story, for which he served as editor-in-chief. He also edited The Bridges Stand Tall and Islamorada and More, publications of the Pigeon Key Foundation. He has collected more than a thousand old photographs of the early Keys and the Key West Extension. Dan and his wife, Rita Irwin, live on Grassy Key.