Government Cut

Opened in 1905, the cut across the peninsula that is now Miami Beach was authorized by the U.S. government (hence the name), in order to provide a direct route from the Atlantic Ocean on the east to the seaport on Biscayne Bay to the west, without having to detour southward.

The cut across the mangroves and beach at the southern end of the peninsula created Fisher Island, which except for the extreme northeast corner, is part of unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.

Later dredging to widen and deepen the cut also added land area to the Port of Miami, and created the foundation for the MacArthur Causeway (east of Interstate 395).

On December 19, 2005, the vintage Grumann G-73T Turbine Mallard seaplane providing Chalk's Ocean Airways Flight 101 crashed immediately offshore Government Cut, temporarily closing the channel to all traffic and trapping freighters and cruise ships on both sides.

The boat hit the jetty and capsized, killing Fernández and two other men on board, 25-year-old Eduardo Rivero, and 27-year-old Emilio Macias, the son of a Miami-Dade police detective.