1.
Florida Keys
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The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost portion of the continental United States. The islands lie along the Florida Straits, dividing the Atlantic Ocean to the east from the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest, at the nearest point, the southern part of Key West is just 90 miles from Cuba. The Florida Keys are between about 23.5 and 25.5 degrees North latitude, the climate of the Keys is defined as tropical savanna according to Köppen climate classification. More than 95 percent of the area lies in Monroe County. The total land area is 137.3 square miles, the US Census population estimate for 2014 is 77,136. The city of Key West is the county seat of Monroe County, the county consists of a section on the mainland which is almost entirely in Everglades National Park, and the Keys islands from Key Largo to the Dry Tortugas. The Keys were originally inhabited by Calusa and Tequesta Native Americans, de León named the islands Los Martires, as they looked like suffering men from a distance. Key is derived from the Spanish word cayo, meaning small island, for many years, Key West was the largest town in Florida, and it grew prosperous on wrecking revenues. The isolated outpost was located for trade with Cuba and the Bahamas. Improved navigation led to shipwrecks, and Key West went into a decline in the late nineteenth century. The Keys were long accessible only by water and this changed with the completion of Henry Flaglers Overseas Railway in the early 1910s. Flagler, a developer of Floridas Atlantic coast, extended his Florida East Coast Railway down to Key West with an ambitious series of over-sea railroad trestles. Three hurricanes disrupted the project in 1906,1909, and 1910, one of the worst hurricanes to strike the U. S. made landfall near Islamorada in the Upper Keys on Labor Day, Monday, September 2. Winds were estimated to have gusted to 200 mph, raising a storm more than 17.5 feet above sea level that washed over the islands. More than 400 people were killed, though some place the number of deaths at more than 600. The Labor Day Hurricane is one of three hurricanes to make landfall at Category 5 strength on the U. S. coast since reliable weather records began. The other storms were Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Andrew, in 1935, new bridges were under construction to connect a highway through the entire Keys. Hundreds of World War I veterans working on the roadway as part of a government relief program were housed in non-reinforced buildings in three camps in the Upper Keys
2.
U.S. Route 1 in Florida
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U. S. Highway 1 in Florida runs 545 miles along the states east coast from Key West to its crossing of the St. Marys River into Georgia north of Boulogne, and south of Folkston. US1 was designated through Florida when the United States Numbered Highway System was established in 1926, the road is maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation. From its national terminus in Key West, US1 carries the Overseas Highway—the Keys main highway north to the mainland. North of Jacksonville, US1 curves inland towards the St. Marys River as it enters Georgia. /US17 in Jacksonville to the Georgia state line near Boulogne, among other designations, US1 is a designated Blue Star Memorial Highway along its entire route through the state. Markers are placed at locations, including one in Rockledge. US1 officially begins at the Monroe County courthouse at the intersection of Whitehead and Fleming Streets and it proceeds south as Whitehead Street, a two-laned street, until the intersection with Truman Avenue, which takes it east through central Key West. Truman Avenue becomes North Roosevelt Boulevard about a mile east, and remains so until leaving the island, the road follows the northern shore of this section of Key West, then after curving southward, it meets State Road A1A head-on at a T-intersection before continuing east. This intersection also marks the terminus of the Overseas Highway. The highway expands to four lanes as it crosses the Bahia Honda Bridge, after Little Duck Key, US1 enters Knights Key, Boot Key, Key Vaca and the town of Marathon via the Seven Mile Bridge, thus leaving the lower Keys. US1 runs through Marathon as a four-laned road, after Key Vaca, the road becomes two-laned once more and runs through Fat Deer Key, where it forms the northern boundary of the city of Key Colony Beach. It then continues wholly in Marathon through Long Point Key, Crawl Key, the road then crosses to Little Conch Key and then Conch Key, both part of the Duck Key district. US1 then crosses to and traverses Long Key, which is mostly unincorporated except for the city of Layton, the road then reaches Craig Key, and then the village of Islamorada including Lower Matecumbe Key, Tea Table Key, Upper Matecumbe Key and Windley Key. US1 crosses a drawbridge onto Plantation Key, where it expands to four lanes, immediately the Overseas Highway enters Tavernier, where it temporarily splits into a pair of one-way roads through the community. Soon the road enters the community of Key Largo, which features another pair of one-way roads. Signage approaching the intersection directs northbound motorists to take this route if the lights on it are flashing. US1 swings to the northwest, forms the boundary of North Key Largo. After crossing the Jewfish Creek Bridge and travelling along Cross Key, US1 crosses Manatee Creek, along with the Miami-Dade County boundary, for the first 14 miles in Miami-Dade County, US1 is a divided two-lane road bordering the Everglades National Park on the west. It is named South Dixie Highway from the county line to Miami and its first major intersection is with the north end of Card Sound Road south of Florida City
3.
Overseas Highway
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The Overseas Highway is a 113-mile highway carrying U. S. Route 1 through the Florida Keys. Large parts of it were built on the former right-of-way of the Overseas Railroad, completed in 1912, the Overseas Railroad was heavily damaged and partially destroyed in the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935. The Florida East Coast Railway was financially unable to rebuild the destroyed sections, so the roadbed, many exotic animals such as the American Crocodile and Key Deer inhabit the tropical islands of the Florida Keys. The concept of an Overseas Highway began with the Miami Motor Club in 1921, the Florida land boom of the 1920s was underway and the club wanted to attract tourists to easily reached fishing areas, which could only be reached by boat or train at the time. The land boom also attracted real estate interests who sought vehicular access to the upper keys where there were thousands of acres of undeveloped land, the completion of the railroad further proved a highway through the keys was feasible. Construction on the original Overseas Highway, designated State Road 4A, officially opening for traffic on January 25,1928, the original highway existed in two segments at its greatest extent. One segment ran from the mainland via Card Sound Road to Key Largo and extended as far as Lower Matecumbe Key, an automobile ferry service connected the 41 mile gap between Lower Matecumbe and No Name Keys. State Road 4A mostly ran alongside of the Overseas Railroad in the keys but in the lower keys, it followed a much different path than the railroad. The ferry landing on No Name Key was located at the end of what is now Watson Boulevard, on Little Torch Key, it turned south and rejoined the railroad. From the Saddlebunch Keys, State Road 4A crossed onto Geiger Key, continuing along what is now Geiger Road, on Boca Chica Key, it followed the shoreline south of Naval Air Station Key Wests airstrip to Boca Chica Beach before crossing to Stock Island. On Stock Island, it followed Maloney Avenue and MacDonald Avenue where it rejoined the Overseas Railroad heading into Key West, most of the State Road 4A bridges in the Lower Keys were of wooden construction and had been in use by the early 1920s. By 1931, the ferries would service a 13-mile road built through Marathon on the Vaca Keys with terminals at Hog. In 1933, the legislature created the Overseas Road and Toll Bridge District to seek federal funding to extend the roadways. Hundreds of disgruntled World War I veterans seeking early payment of wartime bonuses were employed for construction on the roadway, Construction on a bridge connecting Lower Matecumbe Key and Long Key was already underway when the Category 5 Labor Day Hurricane struck Islamorada on September 2,1935. The hurricane caused damage throughout the area and destroyed much of the Overseas Railroad in the upper keys. Of the over 400 fatalities from the hurricane, more than half were veterans and their deaths caused anger and charges of mismanagement that led to a Congressional investigation. Just west of Lower Matecumbe Key at Mile Marker 73 on the current highway, eight concrete bridge piers, the dredged island is now known as Veterans Key and the piers remain as a tribute to the veterans with a memorial plaque on Craig Key. After the hurricane, the Florida East Coast Railway was financially unable to rebuild the damaged sections of the Overseas Railroad, seizing a rare opportunity, the state purchased the railroads entire right of way and remaining infrastructure for a price of $640,000
4.
Miami-Dade County, Florida
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Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U. S. state of Florida. It is the southeasternmost county on the U. S. mainland, according to a 2015 census report, the county had a population of 2,693,117, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in the United States. It is also Floridas third-largest county in terms of land area, Miami-Dade County is included in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county is home to 34 incorporated cities and many unincorporated areas, southern Miami-Dade County includes the Redland and Homestead areas, which make up the agricultural economy of Miami. Agricultural Redland makes up one third of Miami-Dade Countys inhabited land area, and is sparsely populated. The western portion of the county extends into the Everglades National Park and is populated only by a Miccosukee tribal village, East of the mainland in Biscayne Bay is also Biscayne National Park and the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves. The earliest evidence of Native American settlement in the Miami region came from about 12,000 years ago, the first inhabitants settled on the banks of the Miami River, with the main villages on the northern banks. The Tequesta Indians fished, hunted, and gathered the fruit and roots of plants for food and they buried the small bones of the deceased with the rest of the body, and put the larger bones in a box for the village people to see. The Tequesta are credited with making the Miami Circle, Juan Ponce de León was the first European to visit the area in 1513 by sailing into Biscayne Bay. His journal records that he reached Chequescha, a varianth of Tequesta and it is unknown whether he came ashore or made contact with the natives. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and his men made the first recorded landing when they visited the Tequesta settlement in 1566 while looking for Avilés missing son, shipwrecked a year earlier. Spanish soldiers led by Father Francisco Villarreal built a Jesuit mission at the mouth of the Miami River a year later, after the Spaniards left, the Tequesta Indians were left to fend themselves from European-introduced diseases like smallpox. By 1711, the Tequesta sent a couple of local chiefs to Havana, Cuba, the Cubans sent two ships to help them, but Spanish illnesses struck and most of the Indians died. The first permanent European settlers arrived in the early 19th century, people came from the Bahamas to South Florida and the Keys to hunt for treasure from the ships that ran aground on the treacherous Great Florida Reef. Some accepted Spanish land offers along the Miami River, at about the same time, the Seminole Indians arrived, along with a group of runaway slaves. The area was affected by the Second Seminole War, during which Major William S. Harney led several raids against the Indians, most non-Indian residents were soldiers stationed at Fort Dallas. It was the most devastating Indian war in American history, causing almost a total loss of population in Miami, after the Second Seminole War ended in 1842, William English, re-established a plantation started by his uncle on the Miami River. He charted the “Village of Miami” on the bank of the Miami River
5.
Scuba diving
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Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving in which the scuba diver uses a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus which is completely independent of surface supply, to breathe underwater. They may include additional cylinders for decompression gas or emergency breathing gas, closed-circuit or semi-closed circuit rebreather scuba systems allow recycling of exhaled gases. The volume of gas used is reduced compared to that of open circuit, therefore, scuba divers engaged in armed forces covert operations may be referred to as frogmen, combat divers or attack swimmers. A scuba diver primarily moves underwater by using fins attached to the feet, scuba divers are trained in the procedures and skills appropriate to their level of certification by instructors affiliated to the diver certification organisations which issue these certifications. A minimum level of fitness and health is required by most training organisations, the closed-circuit rebreathers were first developed for escape and rescue purposes, and were modified for military use, due to their stealth advantages, as they produce very few bubbles. The first commercially successful closed-circuit scuba was designed and built by English diving engineer, Henry Fleuss in 1878, while working for Siebe Gorman in London. Sir Robert Davis, head of Siebe Gorman, improved the oxygen rebreather in 1910 with his invention of the Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus, rebreathers have been increasingly used by civilians for recreation, especially since the end of the Cold War. This reduced the risk of attack by Communist Bloc forces. After that, the armed forces had less reason to requisition civilian rebreather patents. The single hose two stage scuba regulators trace their origins to Australia, where Ted Eldred developed the first example of type of regulator. This was developed because patents protected the Aqualungs twin hose design, the single hose regulator separates the demand valve from the cylinder, giving the diver air at the ambient pressure at the mouth, rather than ambient pressure at the cylinder valve. The term SCUBA originally referred to United States combat frogmens oxygen rebreathers, SCUBA was originally an acronym, but is now generally used as a common noun or adjective, scuba. It has become acceptable to refer to equipment or scuba apparatus—examples of the linguistic RAS syndrome. Scuba diving may be performed for a number of reasons, both personal and professional, recreational diving is done purely for enjoyment and has a number of technical disciplines to increase interest underwater, such as cave diving, wreck diving, ice diving and deep diving. Divers may be employed professionally to perform tasks underwater, some of these tasks are suitable for scuba. There are divers who work, full or part-time, in the diving community as instructors, assistant instructors, divemasters. Other specialist areas of diving include military diving, with a long history of military frogmen in various roles. Their roles include direct combat, infiltration behind enemy lines, placing mines or using a manned torpedo, in some cases diver rescue teams may also be part of a fire department, paramedical service or lifeguard unit, and may be classed as public service diving
6.
Fishing
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Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild, techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping. Fishing may include catching aquatic animals other than fish, such as molluscs, cephalopods, crustaceans, the term is not normally applied to catching farmed fish, or to aquatic mammals, such as whales where the term whaling is more appropriate. According to United Nations FAO statistics, the number of commercial fishermen. Fisheries and aquaculture provide direct and indirect employment to over 500 million people in developing countries, in 2005, the worldwide per capita consumption of fish captured from wild fisheries was 14.4 kilograms, with an additional 7.4 kilograms harvested from fish farms. In addition to providing food, modern fishing is also a recreational pastime, Fishing is an ancient practice that dates back to at least the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period about 40,000 years ago. Isotopic analysis of the remains of Tianyuan man, a 40. Archaeology features such as middens, discarded fish bones, and cave paintings show that sea foods were important for survival. During this period, most people lived a lifestyle and were, of necessity. However, where there are examples of permanent settlements such as those at Lepenski Vir. The British dogger was a type of sailing trawler from the 17th century. The Brixham trawler that evolved there was of a build and had a tall gaff rig. They were also sufficiently robust to be able to tow large trawls in deep water, the great trawling fleet that built up at Brixham, earned the village the title of Mother of Deep-Sea Fisheries. The small village of Grimsby grew to become the largest fishing port in the world by the mid 19th century, an Act of Parliament was first obtained in 1796, which authorised the construction of new quays and dredging of the Haven to make it deeper. It was only in the 1846, with the expansion in the fishing industry. The foundation stone for the Royal Dock was laid by Albert the Prince consort in 1849, the dock covered 25 acres and was formally opened by Queen Victoria in 1854 as the first modern fishing port. The elegant Brixham trawler spread across the world, influencing fishing fleets everywhere, by the end of the 19th century, there were over 3,000 fishing trawlers in commission in Britain, with almost 1,000 at Grimsby. These trawlers were sold to fishermen around Europe, including from the Netherlands, twelve trawlers went on to form the nucleus of the German fishing fleet
7.
Everglades
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The Everglades is a natural region of tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U. S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin and part of the neotropic ecozone. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee. Water leaving the lake in the wet season forms a slow-moving river 60 miles wide, the Everglades experience a wide range of weather patterns, from frequent flooding in the wet season to drought in the dry season. Human habitation in the portion of the Florida peninsula dates to 15,000 years ago. Before European colonization, the region was dominated by the native Calusa, with Spanish colonization, both tribes declined gradually during the following two centuries. The Seminole formed from mostly Creek people who had been warring to the North, they assimilated other peoples and created a new culture. After being forced from northern Florida into the Everglades during the Seminole Wars of the early 19th century, migrants to the region who wanted to develop plantations first proposed draining the Everglades in 1848, but no work of this type was attempted until 1882. Canals were constructed throughout the first half of the 20th century, in 1947, Congress formed the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project, which built 1,400 miles of canals, levees, and water control devices. The Miami metropolitan area grew substantially at this time and Everglades water was diverted to cities, portions of the Everglades were transformed into farmland, where the primary crop was sugarcane. Approximately 50 percent of the original Everglades has been developed as agricultural or urban areas, following this period of rapid development and environmental degradation, the ecosystem began to receive notable attention from conservation groups in the 1970s. Internationally, UNESCO and the Ramsar Convention designated the Everglades a Wetland Area of Global Importance, the construction of a large airport 6 miles north of Everglades National Park was blocked when an environmental study found that it would severely damage the South Florida ecosystem. With heightened awareness and appreciation of the region, restoration began in the 1980s with the removal of a canal that had straightened the Kissimmee River, however, development and sustainability concerns have remained pertinent in the region. The deterioration of the Everglades, including water quality in Lake Okeechobee, was linked to the diminishing quality of life in South Floridas urban areas. In 2000 the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was approved by Congress to combat these problems, to date, it is the most expensive and comprehensive environmental restoration attempt in history, but its implementation has faced political complications. The first written record of the Everglades was on Spanish maps made by cartographers who had not seen the land and they named the unknown area between the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of Florida Laguna del Espíritu Santo. The area was featured on maps for decades without having been explored, British surveyor John Gerard de Brahm, who mapped the coast of Florida in 1773, called the area River Glades. Both Marjory Stoneman Douglas and linguist Wallace McMullen suggest that cartographers substituted Ever for River, the name Everglades first appeared on a map in 1823, although it was also spelled as Ever Glades as late as 1851. The Seminole call it Pa-hay-okee, meaning Grassy Water, the region was labeled Pa-hai-okee on an American military map from 1839, although it had earlier been called Ever Glades throughout the Second Seminole War
8.
Kayak
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A kayak is a small, narrow watercraft which is propelled by means of a double-bladed paddle. The word kayak originates from the Greenlandic language, where it is the word qajaq, in the UK the term canoe is often used when referring to a kayak. The traditional kayak has a deck and one or more cockpits. Kayaks are also being sailed, as well as propelled by means of electric motors. The kayak was first used by the indigenous Aleut, Inuit, Yupik, kayaks were originally developed by the Inuit, Yupik, and Aleut. They used the boats to hunt on inland lakes, rivers and coastal waters of the Arctic Ocean, North Atlantic, Bering Sea and these first kayaks were constructed from stitched seal or other animal skins stretched over a wood or whalebone-skeleton frame. Kayaks are believed to be at least 4,000 years old, the oldest existing kayaks are exhibited in the North America department of the State Museum of Ethnology in Munich. Native people made many types of boat for different purposes, the baidarka, developed by indigenous cultures in Alaska, was also made in double or triple cockpit designs, for hunting and transporting passengers or goods. An umiak is an open sea canoe, ranging from 17 to 30 feet, made with seal skins. It is considered a kayak although it was originally paddled with single-bladed paddles, native builders designed and built their boats based on their own experience and that of the generations before them, passed on through oral tradition. A special skin jacket, Tuilik, was laced to the kayak. This enabled the eskimo roll to become the method of regaining posture after capsizing, especially as few Inuit could swim. Inuit kayak builders had specific measurements for their boats, the length was typically three times the span of his outstretched arms. The width at the cockpit was the width of the builders hips plus two fists, the typical depth was his fist plus the outstretched thumb. Thus typical dimensions were about 17 feet long by 20–22 inches wide by 7 inches deep and this measurement system confounded early European explorers who tried to duplicate the kayak, because each kayak was a little different. Most of the Aleut people in the Aleutian Islands eastward to Greenland Inuit relied on the kayak for hunting a variety of seals, though whales. Skin-on-frame kayaks are still being used for hunting by Inuit people in Greenland, because the smooth and flexible skin glides silently through the waves. In other parts of the home builders are continuing the tradition of skin on frame kayaks, usually with modern skins of canvas or synthetic fabric
9.
Miami Beach, Florida
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Miami Beach is a coastal resort city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. It was incorporated on March 26,1915, the municipality is located on natural and man-made barrier islands between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, the latter of which separates the Beach from Miami. The neighborhood of South Beach, comprising the southernmost 2.5 square miles of Miami Beach, along with downtown Miami, as of the 2010 census, Miami Beach had a total population of 87,779. It has been one of Americas pre-eminent beach resorts since the early 20th century, in 1979, Miami Beachs Art Deco Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Art Deco District is the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world and comprises hundreds of hotels, apartments, mediterranean, Streamline Moderne and Art Deco are all represented in the District. The Historic District is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the East, Lenox Court on the West, 6th Street on the South and Dade Boulevard along the Collins Canal to the North. The movement to preserve the Art Deco Districts architectural heritage was led by interior designer Barbara Capitman. Miami Beach is governed by a mayor and six commissioners. Although the mayor runs commission meetings, the mayor and all commissioners have equal voting power and are elected by popular election. The mayor serves for terms of two years with a limit of three terms and commissioners serve for terms of four years and are limited to two terms. Commissioners are voted for citywide and every two years three commission seats are voted upon, a city manager is responsible for administering governmental operations. An appointed city manager is responsible for administration of the city, the City Clerk and the City Attorney are also appointed officials. In 1870, a father and son, Henry and Charles Lum, the first structure to be built on this uninhabited oceanfront was the Biscayne House of Refuge, constructed in 1876 by the United States Life-Saving Service at approximately 72nd Street. Its purpose was to provide food, water, and a return to civilization for people who were shipwrecked, Collins family members saw the potential in developing the beach as a resort. This effort got underway in the years of the 20th century by the Collins/Pancoast family, the Lummus brothers. Until then, the beach here was only the destination for day-trips by ferry from Miami, there were bath houses and food stands, but no hotel until Browns Hotel was built in 1915. Much of the land mass at that time was a tangled jungle of mangroves. Clearing it, deepening the channels and water bodies, and eliminating native growth almost everywhere in favor of landfill for development, was expensive
10.
Carl G. Fisher
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Carl Graham Fisher was an American entrepreneur. Despite severe astigmatism, he became involved in auto racing. He was a seemingly tireless pioneer and promoter of the industry and highway construction. He is widely regarded as a promotional genius, despite family financial strains and a disability, in the late 19th century he became a bicycle enthusiast and opened a modest bicycle shop with a brother. He became involved in racing, as well as many activities related to the emerging American auto industry. Soon Fishers firm supplied nearly every headlamp used on automobiles in the United States as manufacturing plants were all over the country to supply the demand. The headlight patent made him rich as a parts supplier when he and Allison sold their company, Prest-O-Lite. Fisher operated in Indianapolis what is believed to be the first automobile dealership in the United States, and also worked at developing an automobile racetrack locally. After being injured in stunts himself, and following a safety debacle at the new Indianapolis Motor Speedway, of which he was a principal, he helped develop paved racetracks, improvements he implemented at the speedway led to its nickname, The Brickyard. In 1912, Fisher conceived and helped develop the Lincoln Highway, Carl Fisher followed the east-west Lincoln Highway in 1914 with the conception of the north-south Dixie Highway, which led from Michigan to Miami. Under his leadership, the portion was completed within a single year. Fisher was one of the best known and active promoters of the Florida land boom of the 1920s, by 1926, he was worth an estimated $100 million, and redirected his promotional efforts when the Florida real estate market bubble burst after 1925. His final major project, cut short by the Great Depression, was a Miami Beach of the north at Montauk, located at the tip of Long Island. His fortune was lost in the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and he found himself living in a small cottage in Miami Beach, doing minor work for old friends. Although he had lost his fortune and late in life considered himself a failure and he was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1971. PBS labeled him Mr. Miami Beach, just south of Miami Beach, Fisher Island, became one of the wealthiest and most exclusive residential areas in the United States. Carl Fisher was born in Greensburg, Indiana, nine years after the end of the American Civil War, apparently suffering from alcoholism, a problem which would also plague Carl later in life, his father left the family when Fisher was a child. Suffering from severe astigmatism, it was difficult for Carl to pay attention in school, as uncorrected astigmatism can cause headaches or eyestrain and he quit school when he was twelve years old to help support his family
11.
Warner Bros.
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Entertainment Inc. – colloquially known as Warner Bros. or Warner Bros. It is one of the Big Six major American film studios, Warner Bros. is a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. The companys name originated from the four founding Warner brothers, Harry, Albert, Sam, Jack, the youngest, was born in London, Ontario. The three elder brothers began in the theater business, having acquired a movie projector with which they showed films in the mining towns of Pennsylvania. In the beginning, Sam and Albert Warner invested $150 to present Life of an American Fireman and they opened their first theater, the Cascade, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1903. When the original building was in danger of being demolished, the modern Warner Bros. called the current building owners, the owners noted people across the country had asked them to protect it for its historical significance. In 1904, the Warners founded the Pittsburgh-based Duquesne Amusement & Supply Company, in 1912, Harry Warner hired an auditor named Paul Ashley Chase. By the time of World War I they had begun producing films, in 1918 they opened the first Warner Bros. studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. Sam and Jack produced the pictures, while Harry and Albert, along with their auditor and now controller Chase, handled finance and distribution in New York City. During World War I their first nationally syndicated film, My Four Years in Germany, on April 4,1923, with help from money loaned to Harry by his banker Motley Flint, they formally incorporated as Warner Brothers Pictures, Incorporated. The first important deal was the acquisition of the rights to Avery Hopwoods 1919 Broadway play, The Gold Diggers, however, Rin Tin Tin, a dog brought from France after World War I by an American soldier, established their reputation. Rin Tin Tin debuted in the feature Where the North Begins, the movie was so successful that Jack signed the dog to star in more films for $1,000 per week. Rin Tin Tin became the top star. Jack nicknamed him The Mortgage Lifter and the success boosted Darryl F. Zanucks career, Zanuck eventually became a top producer and between 1928 and 1933 served as Jacks right-hand man and executive producer, with responsibilities including day-to-day film production. More success came after Ernst Lubitsch was hired as head director, lubitschs film The Marriage Circle was the studios most successful film of 1924, and was on The New York Times best list for that year. Despite the success of Rin Tin Tin and Lubitsch, Warners remained a lesser studio, Sam and Jack decided to offer Broadway actor John Barrymore the lead role in Beau Brummel. The film was so successful that Harry signed Barrymore to a contract, like The Marriage Circle. By the end of 1924, Warner Bros. was arguably Hollywoods most successful independent studio, as the studio prospered, it gained backing from Wall Street, and in 1924 Goldman Sachs arranged a major loan
12.
Everglades National Park
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Everglades National Park is a U. S. National Park in Florida that protects the southern 20 percent of the original Everglades. In the United States, it is the largest tropical wilderness, the largest wilderness of any kind east of the Mississippi River and it is the third-largest national park in the lower 48 states after Death Valley and Yellowstone. It has been declared an International Biosphere Reserve, a World Heritage Site, although most U. S. national parks preserve unique geographic features, Everglades National Park was the first created to protect a fragile ecosystem. The Everglades are a network of wetlands and forests fed by a river flowing.25 miles per day out of Lake Okeechobee, the Park is the most significant breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America and contains the largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere. The majority of South Floridas fresh water, which is stored in the Biscayne Aquifer, is recharged in the park. Humans have lived for thousands of years in or around the Everglades until plans arose in 1882, to drain the wetlands, as the 20th century progressed, water flow from Lake Okeechobee was increasingly controlled and diverted to enable explosive growth of the South Florida metropolitan area. The park was established in 1934, to protect the quickly vanishing Everglades, the ecosystems in Everglades National Park have suffered significantly from human activity, and restoration of the Everglades is a politically charged issue in South Florida. Everglades National Park covers 1,509,000 acres, throughout Dade, Monroe, the elevation typically ranges from 0 to 8 feet above sea level, but a Calusa-built shell mound on the Gulf Coast rises 20 feet above sea level. The terrain of South Florida is relatively and consistently flat, although rock formations are not a central draw to Everglades National Park, the limestone that underlies the Everglades is integral to the formation of the diverse ecosystems within the park. Florida was once part of the African portion of the supercontinent Gondwana, after it separated, conditions allowed a shallow marine environment to deposit calcium carbonate in sand, shells, and coral to be converted into limestone. Tiny bits of shell, sand, and bryozoans compressed over multiple layers forming unique structures in the limestone called ooids, the Florida peninsula appeared above sea level between 100,000 and 150,000 years ago. As sea levels at the end of the Wisconsin ice age rose, Lake Okeechobee began to flood and convection thunderstorms were created. Vast peat deposits south of Lake Okeechobee indicate that regular flooding had occurred about 5,000 years ago, plants began to migrate, subtropical ones from the northern part of Florida, and tropicals carried as seeds by birds from islands in the Caribbean. Although the limestone shelf appears to be flat, there are slight rises—called pinnacles—and depressions caused by the erosion of limestone by the properties of the water. Portions of the Everglades that remain flooded for more than nine out of the year are usually covered by peat. Areas that are flooded six months or less are covered by marl, plant communities are determined by the type of soil and amount of water present. While they are common in the portion of Florida, no underground springs feed water into the Everglades system. An underground reservoir called the Floridan Aquifer lies about 1,000 feet below the surface of South Florida, however, the Everglades has an immense capacity for water storage, owing to the sponge-like permeable limestone beneath the exposed land
Key Largo travel guide from Wikivoyage