A Franklin Fact just a short time ago recounted Hurricanes Camille and Andrew - the numbers two and three on the list of most powerful hurricanes to hit the U.S. in the last century. Number one on that list is a hurricane that struck the Florida Keys on Labor Day 1935, before hurricanes were named.

That storm still holds the world record for the lowest air pressure ever measured on land, a reading captured by a survivor who took a barometer with him into a tree where he rode out the storm. With winds estimated at 200 mph and a 15 to 20 foot storm surge, the hurricane destroyed nearly everything in a 30-mile-wide swath of the Keys. It washed away the railroad that connected the Islands to the mainland, drowning many World War One veterans who were working on a federal project to build a highway alongside that track.

Today, an 18-foot-tall memorial stands just off U.S. Route 1 in the Central Keys as a tribute to the more than 400 people who died in the hurricane. It's also a reminder that the 125-mile-long island chain remains one of the most vulnerable places in the U.S. for a similar disaster to occur again.