Miami, Florida

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Miami is a coastal city in southeastern Florida, in the United States. Miami is the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida. With an estimated population of 409,719 in 2007, Miami is the largest city within the Miami metropolitan area, which is the seventh-largest metro area in the United States with over 5.4 million residents. The Miami Urbanized Area (as defined by the Census Bureau) was the fifth most populous urbanized area in the U.S. in the 2000 census with a population of 4,919,036. The United Nations estimated that in 2007, Miami had become the fourth largest urbanized area in the United States, behind New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago.

Miami is recognized as a global city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts and international trade. The city is home to many company headquarters, banks, and television studios. It is an international center for popular entertainment in television, music, fashion, film, and the performing arts. The city's Port of Miami is known for accommodating the largest volume of cruise ships in the world and is home to many cruise line headquarters. Miami is also home to the largest concentration of international banks in the United States.

Since 2001, Miami has been undergoing a large building boom with more than 50 skyscrapers rising over 400 feet (122 m) built or currently under construction in the city. Miami's skyline ranks third in the U.S., behind New York City and Chicago, and 18th in the world according to the Almanac of Architecture and Design. The city currently has the seven tallest (as well as twelve of the thirteen tallest) skyscrapers in the state of Florida, with the tallest being the 789-foot (240 m) Four Seasons Hotel & Tower.

In 2008, Miami was ranked as "America's Cleanest City" according to Forbes Magazine for its year-round good air quality, vast green spaces, clean drinking water, clean streets and city-wide recycling programs. In 2008, Miami was also ranked the 3rd-richest city in the United States and the world's 22nd-richest city in a UBS study. (Credit: Wikipedia).

Florida

Florida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the northeast. Much of the land mass of the state is a large peninsula with the Gulf of Mexico to the west and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Most of Florida has a humid subtropical climate; southern Florida has a tropical climate. Florida was named by Juan Ponce de León, who landed on the peninsula on April 2, 1513. Florida is the fourth most populous state in the U.S.

History

Archaeological research indicates that Florida had been inhabited for thousands of years before any European settlements. Of the many indigenous peoples, the largest known were the Ais, the Apalachee, the Calusa, the Timucua and the Tocobago tribes.

"Florida" is the oldest surviving European place-name in the U.S. Juan Ponce de León, a Spanish conquistador, named Florida in honor of his discovery of the land on the evening April 2, 1513, six days after Easter and still during Pascua Florida, a Spanish term for the "Flowery Easter" season, and for the land's appearance as a "flowered land." "It was named for these two reasons." (Juan Ponce de León may not have been the first European to reach Florida; according to one report, at least one indigenous tribesman who he encountered in Florida in 1513 spoke Spanish.) From that date forward, the land became known as "La Florida," although after 1630 Tegesta (after the Tequesta tribe) was throughout the 1700s an alternate name of choice for the Florida peninsula following publication of a map by the Dutch cartographer Hessel Gerritsz in Joannes de Laet's History of the New World.