1.
Little Havana
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Little Havana is a neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. Home to many Cuban immigrant residents, as well as residents from Central and South America, Little Havana is named after Havana. Little Havana is noted as a center of social, cultural and its festivals, including the Calle Ocho Festival, Viernes Culturales/Cultural Fridays, the Three Kings Parade and others, have been televised to millions of people every year on different continents. John Bosco Catholic Church, Municipio de Santiago de Cuba and others, Little Havana is the best known neighborhood for Cuban exiles in the world. It is characterized by its life, with restaurants, music and other cultural activities, mom and pop enterprises, political passion. In 2015, Little Havana was included in the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s annual list of 11 Most Endangered Places, in 2017, the Trust declared it a national treasure. Originally a lower-middle-class Southern and a thriving Jewish neighborhood in the 1930s, the name Little Havana emerged in the 1960s as the concentration of Cubans in the area grew sharply. Little Havana is the affixed to a sprawling neighborhood lying immediately west of Downtown Miami. It stretches west from the Miami River for several miles and this sobriquet was applied to the Shenandoah and Riverside neighborhoods in the 1960s, following the beginnings of a vast influx of Cuban refugees there. Little Havana is famous as the cultural and political capital of Cuban Americans, as of 2011, Little Havana has the highest concentration of Hispanics in Miami. The median household income was $15,213.16, the ethnic makeup of the neighborhood was 85. 08% Hispanic or Latino of any race,3. 79% Black or African American,10. 14% Non-Hispanic White, and 0. 96% of other races. The district includes 428,438 Southwest 1st Street,437 Southwest 2nd Street,104,109,118 Southwest South River Drive, free walking tours, led by Miami historian Dr. Paul George leave from the Tower Theater at 7pm each festival. St. John Bosco Catholic Church St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church St. Llanes Elementary A and it is a free street festival with a Caribbean carnival feel sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana. Calle Ocho is where different ethnic communities wear colors or flags representing pride in their heritage, flags from Colombia to Nicaragua to Puerto Rico to Costa Rica and even Ireland flood the streets. Foods from different countries are sold, and popular music like reggaeton, salsa, bachata. In 1977 tensions among Miami’s different ethnic groups were running high, eight Cuban-Americans, mostly from the Kiwanis of Little Havana, were trying to come up with ideas to address the situation. They considered a race on SW Eighth Street. It was turned down because the organizers feared that it would pit one ethnic group against another, willy Bermello came up with the idea of doing something similar to the block parties and street festivals of Philadelphia
2.
U.S. Route 41 in Florida
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U. S. Route 41 in the U. S. state of Florida is a north–south United States Highway. It runs 479 miles from Miami in South Florida northwest to the Georgia border north of the Lake City area, within the state, US41 is paralleled by Interstate 75 all the way from Miami to Georgia, and I-75 has largely supplanted US41 as a major highway. State Road 684 from the junction with the end of US41 Business to 44th Avenue Connection in unincorporated Manatee County. State Road 55 from 44th Avenue Connection to the end of US41 Business in Palmetto. State Road 599 from the junction of the end of US41 Business. State Road 600 from US41 south to Nebraska Avenue in Tampa, State Road 25 from the junction with US441, US41 and North Main Street in High Springs to the Georgia state line near Jennings. From there, the route concurrent with SR A1A westbound, then south along US 1/SR5. Between Miami and Naples, US41 cuts across the Florida peninsula and this section has been designated a National Scenic Byway. The byway runs east–west through the Big Cypress National Preserve, skirting the border of the Everglades National Park for about 20 miles. Alligators are a common sight along the scenic Tamiami Trail from Miami to Naples, unlike the parallel road, Alligator Alley, the trail is only one lane in each direction, and it has no fences to keep wildlife from crossing it. In Naples, US41 changes direction at the intersection of hidden SR90 and hidden SR45, turning from west to north towards Tampa and this segment of US41 is still considered the Tamiami Trail. US41 has a bypass in Fort Myers that separates from the trail, however in the Venice Area, US41 breaks away from the trail onto hidden SR 45A, a connector to I-75 can be found just north of the northern end of the business route. Two major US highways terminate at US41 in the Sarasota-Bradenton Metropolitan Area, the first is US301 in Sarasota, which runs straight, while US41 curves to the west towards the John Ringling Causeway, only to turn back north again. North of the end of it CR610, it runs along the western edge of Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport where it crosses the Sarasota-Manatee County line. Across from the airport, the road serves as the address for New College of Florida, in Bradenton, US41 makes a sharp turn east onto SR684 at the intersection of US41 Business. The road curves north onto SR55 and it encounters US301 again, US301 makes a sharp right turn onto SR43 at a diamond interchange, while US41 continues north. Just after the interchange with the end of US41 Business in Memphis. Here, US41 rejoins hidden SR45, while hidden SR55 moves to US19, the rest of US 41s journey will continue along the east coast of Tampa Bay
3.
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
4.
Miami
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Miami is a seaport city at the southeastern corner of the U. S. state of Florida and its Atlantic coast. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, Miamis metro area is the eighth-most populous, Miami is a major center, and a leader in finance, commerce, culture, media, entertainment, the arts, and international trade. In 2012, Miami was classified as an Alpha−World City in the World Cities Study Groups inventory, in 2010, Miami ranked seventh in the United States in terms of finance, commerce, culture, entertainment, fashion, education, and other sectors. It ranked 33rd among global cities, in 2008, Forbes magazine ranked Miami Americas Cleanest City, for its year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets, and citywide recycling programs. According to a 2009 UBS study of 73 world cities, Miami was ranked as the richest city in the United States, Miami is nicknamed the Capital of Latin America and is the largest city with a Cuban-American plurality. Miami has the third tallest skyline in the U. S. with over 300 high-rises, Downtown Miami is home to the largest concentration of international banks in the United States, and many large national and international companies. The Civic Center is a center for hospitals, research institutes, medical centers. For more than two decades, the Port of Miami, known as the Cruise Capital of the World, has been the number one cruise port in the world. It accommodates some of the worlds largest cruise ships and operations, Metropolitan Miami is the major tourism hub in the American South, number two in the U. S. after New York City and number 13 in the world, including the popular destination of Miami Beach. The Miami area was inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous Native American tribes, the Tequestas occupied the area for a thousand years before encountering Europeans. An Indian village of hundreds of people dating to 500–600 B. C. was located at the mouth of the Miami River, in 1566 the explorer, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, claimed it for Spain. A Spanish mission was constructed one year later in 1567, Spain and Great Britain successively controlled Florida, and Spain ceded it to the United States in 1821. In 1836, the US built Fort Dallas as part of its development of the Florida Territory and attempt to suppress, the Miami area subsequently became a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. Miami is noted as the major city in the United States conceived by a woman, Julia Tuttle, a local citrus grower. The Miami area was known as Biscayne Bay Country in the early years of its growth. In the late 19th century, reports described the area as a promising wilderness, the area was also characterized as one of the finest building sites in Florida. The Great Freeze of 1894–95 hastened Miamis growth, as the crops of the Miami area were the ones in Florida that survived. Julia Tuttle subsequently convinced Henry Flagler, a tycoon, to expand his Florida East Coast Railway to the region
5.
Interstate 95 in Florida
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Interstate 95 is the main Interstate Highway on the east coast of the United States, its southernmost segment serves the Atlantic coast of Florida. It begins at an interchange with U. S. Highway 1 just south of downtown Miami. The route also passes through the cities of Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Interstate 95 runs for 382 miles, the southernmost 12.848 miles of which are unsigned as State Road 9A, and the remainder being the unsigned portion of State Road 9. The highway begins at U. S. Highway 1 near 32nd Road in southern Miami and it quickly interchanges with the Rickenbacker Causeway via the short unsigned SR913, and then heads north into downtown. The short SR970 freeway, mostly unsigned, distributes traffic to downtown streets. On the north side of downtown, at the Midtown Interchange, Interstate 395 heads east to the MacArthur Causeway, throughout Miami-Dade County, I-95 is designated the North–South Expressway according to some maps. After crossing I-395 and SR836, I-95 begins to head north roughly along the alignment of Northwest 6th Avenue, a two-way high-occupancy vehicle roadway in the median begins at I-195 and SR112, formed by ramps to and from SR112. I-95 continues north, crossing and interchanging with many roads, most of which are State Roads. I-95 north to West Palm Beach, as well as SR9 southwest to 27th Avenue, runs parallel to the South Florida Rail Corridor, used by CSX Transportation for freight and Tri-Rail for commuter rail. At the Golden Glades Interchange, SR9 merges with I-95, north of Miami, I-95 continues on to Ft. In West Palm Beach, I-95 provides direct access to Palm Beach International Airport as well as downtown West Palm Beach, north of West Palm Beach, I-95 literally runs beside Floridas Turnpike for 17 miles, between Donald Ross Road in Jupiter and SR713 south of Stuart. I-95 then steers west of the turnpike through Martin and St, after an interchange with State Road 70 providing access to the Turnpike, the highway narrows to two lanes in each direction. The road soon enters Indian River County and the major exit is with State Road 60 providing access to Vero Beach. The highway soon enters Brevard County and the Space Coast of Florida, in Palm Bay, the road widens to three lanes in each direction and continues north passing Melbourne, Viera, and Cocoa. The next major junction is State Road 528 with access to Cocoa Beach, I-95 has expanded to three lanes through both exits in Titusville. I-95 continues north and enters Volusia County and the city of Daytona Beach shortly afterwards, at the junction with Interstate 4, the road widens to three lanes in each direction. The highway passes through Flagler and St. Johns counties before it enters Duval County, about 5 miles north of the St. Johns-Duval county border, I-95 intersects the I-295 beltway at its southern end 14 miles south of central Jacksonville, with I-95 continuing north. The interstate passes through the heart of Jacksonville, crossing the Fuller Warren Bridge over the St. Johns River, about a mile north of the bridge, at exit 351B, it intersects with the national eastern terminus of I-10, with the interchanges redesign completed in September 2010
6.
Interstate 275 (Florida)
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Interstate 275, located in Florida, is a highway,60 miles long, serving the Tampa Bay Area. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 75 near Palmetto, where I-275 heads west towards the Sunshine Skyway Bridge crossing over Tampa Bay, after the interchange, I-275 passes north through the Tampa suburbs to its northern terminus at Interstate 75 in Wesley Chapel. Interstate 275 begins at exit 228 of Interstate 75 with two lanes in either direction in rural Palmetto,275 immediately heads west of its parent interstate and has an interchange US412 miles up the road. I-275s next interchange is with US19, beginning a concurrency that lasts 13 miles, after this exit, I-275 reaches the Southern toll plaza for the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. There is a corresponding Northern toll plaza for southbound travelers, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge is a 4.1 mile long bridge that spans Tampa Bay. After reaching the end of the bridge,275 enters St. Petersburg. At the northern end of the bridge, drivers drive on the left side as the freeways lanes invert for about half a mile before US19 exits the freeway. I-275 has multiple exits in the city, each of them serving the neighborhoods that the freeway passes through. At this point, the interstate widens to 3 lanes in either direction, 275s next major interchange is with Interstate 175, which provides access to Albert Whitted Airport and Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays. The next major interchange occurs less than a mile down the road with Interstate 375, after this exit, I-275 continues through residential neighborhoods until it passes beside Sawgrass Lake Park and then through an area of marshland. The freeway widens to four lanes in either direction before reaching its last interchange in St. Petersburg with SR687, after traveling 19 miles in St. Petersburg, I-275 crosses the Howard Frankland Bridge over Old Tampa Bay into Tampa. I-275 has an interchange with SR589, allowing access to Tampa International Airport, at this point, I-275 thins down to three lanes in either direction, and remains this way for the rest of the freeway. 275 then has an interchange with US92, the first of two interchanges with the road, allowing access to downtown Tampa,275 then crosses the Hillsborough River for the first time along its route. Afterwards,6 miles from its entry into Tampa, I-275 has its major interchange with Interstate 4. This junction was always clogged with daily rush hour traffic and was subsequently overhauled and this interchange serves as I-4s western terminus, and allows access to Orlando and the east coast of Florida. After this major exit,275 reaches an interchange with US92 again, after this interchange, US41 acts as the local road for the freeway for the rest of its route. 275 crosses the Hillsborough River a second time and enters residential neighborhoods within Tampa,275 travels due north and parallel to US41 for 4 miles before turning northeast towards Interstate 75. At this point,275 exits Tampa and enters Lutz, a suburb of Tampa, I-275 then reconnects with its parent interstate highway and reaches its northern terminus
7.
Florida State Road 60
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State Road 60 is an east–west route transversing Florida from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean. The western terminus of SR60 is at the Sunsets at Pier 60 site in Clearwater Beach, the eastern terminus is in Vero Beach near the Atlantic Coast just past State Road A1A. From there until its eastern terminus it is a divided highway, in the Tampa Bay area it is the main route from Tampa to the Clearwater area beaches and from Tampa International Airport to northern Pinellas county. It also provides service from Tampa International Airport to the Suncoast Parkway and it is the main non-limited access route from downtown Tampa to Brandon, paralleling the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway. As of 2005, SR60 briefly divides into two, one-way streets in southern downtown Clearwater and this is a result of the recent realignment of the SR60 corridor in the area, following the completion of the new Memorial Causeway. From west to east, Causeway Boulevard from the intersection with Gulfview Boulevard, Memorial Causeway on causeway between Clearwater Beach and mainland Clearwater. SR60 divides into Court Street and Chestnut Street between Bay Ave and Ewing Ave. Court Street from Ewing Ave to S Highland Ave. Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard from S Highland Avenue to Tampa Bay, kennedy Boulevard from I-275 to Channelside Drive. Channelside Drive until junction Adamo Drive, Adamo Drive until junction with Interstate 75. Brandon Boulevard from I-75 until Mount Carmel Road, hopewell Road in Plant City, resumes SR60 east of Plant City. Simply signed SR60 from there until reaching Mulberry city limits, canal Street in Mulberry, resumes SR60 signage east of Mulberry. West Main Street west of Bartow city limits, SR60 divides into SR 60A and Business SR60 at Baker Street in Bartow Bypass 60 called Van Fleet Drive until rejoining business route. Business 60 continues Main Street signage until US17 then Flamingo Drive until merger back to Bypass, from east of Bartow to Lake Wales is simply called SR60. In Lake Wales it is called West Polk, although it changes to Hesperides Road in eastern Lake Wales, simply signed SR60 until Interstate 95. 20th Street in Vero Beach from Interstate 95 to 20th Avenue, 19th Place and 20th Street in Vero Beach from east of 20th Avenue until Commerce Avenue. 20th Street and 20th Place in Vero Beach from east of Commerce Avenue to west of 6th Avenue, 20th Street from west of 6th Avenue in Vero Beach to Indian River Blvd. Cosigned with Indian River Blvd until Merrill P, barber Bridge over the Indian River. Beachland Boulevard after bridge until eastern terminus at State Road A1A, stan Mayfield Memorial Highway from the Florida Turnpike to I-95. Richard Raczkoski Memorial Highway from I-95 to 43rd Avenue, originally, SR60 in Clearwater traveled west of Highland Avenue along Gulf-to-Bay Boulevard and Cleveland Street to the Memorial Causeway
8.
Florida State Highway System
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The State Highway System of the U. S. state of Florida comprises the roads maintained by the Florida Department of Transportation or a toll authority. The components are referred to officially as state roads, abbreviated SR, State Roads are always numbered, in general, the numbers follow a grid. Odd numbered roads run north-south, and even numbered roads run east-west, one- and two-digit numbers run in order from 2 in the north to 94 in the south, and A1A in the east to 97 in the west. The major cross-state roads end in 0 and 5, most routes of the form X00 are major diagonal routes, an even first digit indicates a southwest-to-northeast direction, and an odd first digit indicates a northwest-to-southeast direction. When the grid was first laid out in 1945, the rules were almost perfectly followed, however, over the years, as routes have been added, there has not always been room to follow the grid. Placements such as 112,752, and 602 are the most notable violations of the grid system, the Pensacola area has a collection of these misplaced street numbers. When FDOT added route numbers to a collection of Miami-Dade County streets in 1980, every section of U. S. Highway and Interstate Highway has a State Road number assigned to it, usually unsigned. In addition to some named toll roads some minor State Roads are also unsigned, prior to the 1945 renumbering, State Roads were given numbers in the order they were added to the system. The 1945 renumbering removed many roads that were never built and added some that had not existed prior to 1945, in 1955, the Florida Department of Transportation slowed down the addition of new state roads and began to classify roads into primary, secondary, and local roads. Primary roads would continue to be state-maintained, while Secondary roads would have an S before the number, local roads would be completely removed from the system. In 1977, FDOT changed the division of roads into state/county/local, most secondary roads and some primary roads were given to the counties, and occasionally a new state road was taken over, some main roads in incorporated areas were given to the localities. The secondary signs had the S changed to C and a small COUNTY sticker added to the bottom, as signs grew old, they were replaced with the standard MUTCD county road pentagon. While this occurred throughout the State of Florida, the part of the south of SR70 was hit particularly hard by the transition from State to County control. While most state roads are contiguous, there is a handful of routes that have interruptions in their designations. The most famous of the set is SR A1A, which exists in seven separate pieces along the Atlantic coast from Fernandina Beach to Key West, State Road 2 has two sections separated by the State of Georgia. State Road 5 temporarily ends leaving Lake Worth, FL as its segment in West Palm Beach was relinquished to the city in the mid 2000s, the route resumes at US 1s junction with Belvedere Road, where it runs concurrent with US1 northbound. State Road 15 has two sections bridged by County Road 15 and US 192/441, SR15 is only signed in the Orlando area and in Palm Beach County. For most of its route, SR15 is an administrative FDOT designation for US441 south of Holopaw, US17 between Orlando and Jacksonville, and US 1/23 north of Jacksonville
9.
Florida Scenic Highways
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Florida Scenic Highways are a series of scenic highways in Florida organized by the Florida Department of Transportation. The state uses the highway designations to promote resource preservation and enhancement, promote tourism and economic development. Florida has 24 state-designated scenic byways, six of those byways are also National Scenic Byways, and one of those federally designated byways is an All-American Road
10.
Florida's Turnpike
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The Turnpike itself is in two sections. The first is the Mainline, a 265-mile route from the Golden Glades Interchange to Wildwood that carries the designation of Florida State Road 91. Floridas Turnpike is one of the busiest highways in the country, in Davie, about 8 miles north of the Homestead Extension interchange, it intersects with I-595, providing direct access to Alligator Alley and Ft. Lauderdale International Airport. After two more interchanges, one with Sunrise Boulevard in Plantation and Commercial Boulevard in Tamarac, it crosses the Cypress Creek Toll Plaza in North Lauderdale, the second on the mainline. Just 1 mile north of the plaza, it intersects with the Pompano Beach Service Plaza, the first of seven full service plazas on the mainline. Still in Pompano Beach, it has a northbound exit with Atlantic Boulevard. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Sample Road and it then enters Deerfield Beach with an interchange with the Sawgrass Expressway in Coconut Creek, the final interchange in Broward County. The Turnpike then enters Palm Beach County, with an interchange in each Boca Raton, Delray Beach, in central Palm Beach County at mile marker 88, the Ticket system of the turnpike begins at the Lantana Toll Plaza. It breaks off as it crosses the Thomas B. Manuel Bridge over the St. Lucie Canal, crossing I-95 without an interchange just south of the SR714 interchange, the only exit in Martin County. I-95 heads west towards the western fringes of St. Lucie County development, while the turnpike takes a path along the central areas of the county. The Turnpike has two interchanges in Port St. Lucie, one at Becker Road, the third SunPass only exit, and SR716, followed by the Port St. Lucie-Fort Pierce service plaza at mile marker 144. The turnpike intersects I-95 one last time just south of SR70 in Fort Pierce, as I-95 continues to head up the east coast of Florida and the turnpike curves inland towards Orlando. Between Fort Pierce and Yeehaw Junction, the travels in a nearly east-west direction heading inland. Between Yeehaw Junction and Kissimmee, the turnpike, returning to a north-northwest direction towards Orlando, has a 48.9 miles stretch without an exit, the longest of any US expressway. At mile marker 236, the system ends at the Three Lakes toll plaza, as the turnpike enters the Orlando Area. After interchanges with US 192/US441 and the Osceola Parkway, it enters Orange County, exit 251 features a partial interchange with SR417, with an exit from the northbound Turnpike to northbound SR417 and entrance from southbound SR417 to southbound Turnpike. The Turnpike then enters Lake County, heading in a northwestern direction, at mile 285, it has a northbound exit/southbound entrance with US27, followed by the Leesburg toll plaza at mile 288, and a southbound exit/northbound entrance with US27 at mile 289. The last interchange in Lake County is with County Road 470, at mile marker 299, the turnpike passes through the final service plaza, the Okahumpka service plaza
11.
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
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
Tamiami Trail Scenic Highway
US 1 in Miami, FL
SR 60 in Tampa, FL
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