[tawr-too-guh
z] 
| a group of ten small islands at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico W of Key West: a part of Florida; the site of Fort Jefferson. |
| Dry Tor·tu·gas (drī tôr-tōō'gəz) An island group of southern Florida west of Key West. Famed for their marine life, the islands were named Tortugas ("turtles") by the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León in 1513. |
Dry Tortugas
the last seven in a long string of coral islands (keys) and sandbars that extend westward from Key West (Monroe county), at the tip of southern Florida, U.S., into the Gulf of Mexico. The islands-Bush, East, Garden, Hospital, Loggerhead, Long, and Middle keys-and the unfinished Fort Jefferson (1846-76) on Garden Key were proclaimed Fort Jefferson National Monument in 1935 and became established as Dry Tortugas National Park in 1992. The park, which is within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, has a land and water area of 101 square miles (262 square km).
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