Fred the Tree: The Florida Keys’ ‘Celebri-Tree’

Fred the Tree — the Florida Keys’ beloved, thriving and resolute “celebri-tree” that grows improbably on the historic Old Seven Mile Bridge — is a movie star.

Fred the Tree is featured at the beginning of a remake of “Road House” when actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who plays main character Elwood, arrives in the Florida Keys on a Greyhound bus. 

Elwood is portrayed as a former UFC middleweight fighter hired to clean up a roadhouse in the island chain. (Most of the movie, however, is actually filmed in the Dominican Republic.)

The Keys’ iconic Fred is a salt-sprayed Casuarina, or Australian pine tree. He’s growing out of the roadbed of the historic Old Seven Mile Bridge, completed in the early 1900s as part of the famed Florida Keys Over-Sea Railroad.

Fred may have sprouted from droppings of a passing bird or an osprey. And despite the apparent lack of friendly soil, the tree has grown tall and lush in the sun-seared, salt-swept landscape of the old bridge.

The weather-beaten span has long been closed to motorists (and even pedestrians). 

Fred’s name is an acronym reputedly made up years ago, with the letters F-R-E-D culled from “For Real Enjoyment Driving,” according to Keys residents who help tend to Fred. 

A smaller tree just to the south and several bushes have also sprouted on the cracked pavement and somehow managed to thrive. For many Keys residents, they’ve become leafy mascots.

But Big Fred is the best known by far. During the December holidays, locals decorate his habitat with lights — eliciting smiles and an upsurge of seasonal cheer in virtually everyone driving across the modern Seven Mile Bridge after dark.