A view of Loggerhead Key at mid-day reveals a few more details about the island, including some of the buildings and the dock at the far left. The first lighthouse in the Dry Tortugas was built on Garden Key in 1826; ships continued to run aground in the shallow waters, so a lighthouse was erected on Loggerhead Key in 1856. It's been repaired, rebuilt and renovated in the intervening decades. In 2015, the Coast Guard took the light out of service. As we noted before, Loggerhead gets its name from the abundance of sea turtles that nest there. In fact, the presence of so many sea turtles inspired Ponce de Leon, the first European to visit the islands in 1513, to give the chain the name Dry Tortugas, dry because of the absense of fresh water, tortugas Spanish for turtles. If you're trying to judge the distance from Garden Key using this photo, you should know it was taken with a 150-600mm zoom lens at full magnification. Again, there is no public transportation to Loggerhead but it is open to visitors. Photo by David Sedore
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