Installed by Key West in 1983 at South and Whitehead streets, the Southernmost Point Buoy became one of the island’s best-known tourist landmarks and photo stops. The painted concrete structure, decorated by local artist Danny Acosta, grew from earlier simpler signs marking the site with its familiar Cuba reference. Though widely recognized, it is not geographically exact: public beach at Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park lies farther south, the island’s true southernmost point is on closed Truman Annex U.S. Navy property, and the actual southernmost point in Florida and the continental United States is Ballast Key. Even so, the buoy endures as a symbol of Key West’s edge-of-the-map identity.

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Key West, Florida · USA