The Florida Keys' Overseas Highway has made the grade.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced Friday morning in Washington that the 110-mile stretch of U.S. 1 from Key Largo to Key West -- with its 42 bridges linking the scenic island chain -- has been designated an All-American Road.

It's the first in Florida and only one of only 30 in the country, joining an elite list that includes the Blue Ridge Parkway, Alaska's Seward Highway, Historic Route 66 and the Las Vegas Strip.

``The All-American Road designation will bring status to us with international travelers and domestic visitors, so that they know driving U.S. 1 from Key Largo to Key West is a one-of-a-kind driving experience,'' said Judy Hull, president of the volunteer Florida Keys Scenic Corridor Alliance that spent two years working on the national bid.

All-American Roads are the most prestigious of the America's Byways collection, which also include National Scenic Byways. The U.S. Congress began the program in 1991 to recognize, preserve and enhance selected roads.

The Overseas Highway was one of 42 roads named to the collection on Friday, bringing the total number to 151. Of the 42 roads, only five were designated at the highest All-American road level. They are the first new additions since 2005.

Three other roads in Florida made the collection as National Scenic Byways: Big Bend Scenic Byway in North Florida, Ormond Scenic Loop and Trail in Volusia County and Florida Black Bear Scenic Byway, which connects Silver Springs with Ormond Beach.

To earn All-American Road status, the route must contain multiple intrinsic qualities that are nationally significant, be considered a ``destination unto itself'' and contain one-of-a-kind features that do not exist elsewhere.

The Overseas Highway features the spectacular Seven Mile Bridge, with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Gulf of Mexico on the other. When the original bridge was built a century ago as part of Henry Flagler's Overseas Railroad, it was called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

The Overseas Highway follows the railroad trail blazed in the early 1900s by Flagler, a Standard Oil millionaire. The highway was started after the 1935 hurricane destroyed parts of the railroad and completed in 1938.

In 2001, after a yearslong effort by the defunct nonprofit group Clean Florida Keys, the road that serves as Main Street for the Keys was named a Florida Scenic Highway. That designation paved the way for a national panel that selects America's Byways to consider the Keys' 10-mile-wide corridor for six potential qualities: natural, scenic, recreational, archaeological, historical and cultural.

Hull said during the nomination process that while the Overseas Highway had all six, ``we decided to hang our hat on scenic and recreational.''

The road's corridor has a combination of only-in-the-Keys recreation: diving coral reefs and shipwrecks in Key Largo; deep-sea fishing and flats fishing off Islamorada; walking the old Seven Mile Bridge to Flagler's railroad camp on Pigeon Key; visiting the endangered Key Deer reserve on Big Pine.

And the road ends at mile marker 0 of U.S. 1, at the country's Southernmost City, quirky Key West, with its bars, art shops and Historic Seaport District.

On Friday, state transportation workers put up a new All-American Road sign at mile marker 108, at the top of the new Jewfish Creek Bridge that serves as the gateway to the Keys.

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