Keys ranked as second wonder of Florida

South Florida Sun-Sentinel readers chose the Florida Keys as the second wonder of Florida in a recent Seven Wonders of Florida readers’ poll. A necklace of islands that begins just south of Miami, the Florida Keys are connected by the Overseas Highway's 43 bridges - one almost seven miles long - over the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

Vistas of the Keys are dominated by emerald-green lagoons, deep-blue seas, nodding palms, rustling pines and olive-green mangroves.

The newspaper's readers were asked to nominate locations throughout the state they considered one of the Seven Wonders of Florida. After nearly three months and hundreds of nominations, "Sun-Sentinel" staffers narrowed the field to 14 finalists. Readers then voted on the finalists through an online survey tallied weekly. The results were released the second week of August.

The Florida Everglades topped the list, followed by the Florida Keys and St. Augustine in third place.

Rounding out the list were Florida's natural springs, Kennedy Space Center, Florida's beaches and Walt Disney World.

To learn more about the keys, log on to Fla-keys.com.