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Fort Lauderdale Travel Guide - Travel S Helper

Fort Lauderdale

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Fort Lauderdale is a city in the United States of America’s state of Florida, located 28 miles (45 kilometers) north of Miami. It is Broward County’s county seat. The city has a population of 165,521 residents as of the 2010 census. It is the major city of the South Florida metropolitan region, which had a 2010 population of 5,564,635 people.

With an average year-round temperature of 75.5 °F (24.2 °C) and 3,000 hours of sunlight each year, the city is a popular tourist destination. In 2012, Greater Fort Lauderdale, which encompasses all of Broward County, welcomed 12 million tourists, including 2.8 million overseas visitors. The city and county earned $43.9 million in 2012 from the 5% bed tax, after hotels in the region registered an occupancy rate of 72.7 percent and an average daily rate of $114.48 throughout the year. There are 561 hotels and motels in the district, totaling almost 35,000 rooms. In 2012, 46 cruise ships departed from Port Everglades. Greater Fort Lauderdale is home to more than 4,000 restaurants, 63 golf courses, 12 commercial malls, 16 museums, 132 nightclubs, 278 parkland campgrounds, and 100 marinas with a combined capacity of 45,000 resident ships.

Fort Lauderdale was named after a chain of forts constructed by the US during the Second Seminole War. The forts were named after Major William Lauderdale (1782–1838), Lieutenant Colonel James Lauderdale’s younger brother. William Lauderdale was the commander of the first fort’s contingent of troops. However, the city’s growth did not begin until 50 years after the forts were abandoned at the conclusion of the fight. Three forts with the name “Fort Lauderdale” were built: the first at the New River’s fork, the second at Tarpon Bend on the New River between the Colee Hammock and Rio Vista communities, and the third at the site of the Bahia Mar Marina.

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Fort Lauderdale | Introduction

Fort Lauderdale – Info Card

POPULATION : • City 172,389 (US: 132nd)
• Metro 5,762,717 (US: 8th)
FOUNDED :   March 27, 1911
TIME ZONE : Time zone Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
Summer (DST) EDT (UTC-4)
LANGUAGE :  English
RELIGION :
AREA : • City 38.6 sq mi (99.9 km2)
• Land 34.7 sq mi (90.0 km2)
• Water 3.8 sq mi (9.9 km2) 9.87%
ELEVATION :  9 ft (2.75 m)
COORDINATES :  26°8′N 80°9′W
SEX RATIO :
ETHNIC :
AREA CODE :  754, 954
POSTAL CODE : 33301, 33304-33306, 33308-33309, 33312-33313, 33315-33316, 33334, 33394
DIALING CODE :
WEBSITE :   www.fortlauderdale.gov

Tourism in Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale is a city on the Atlantic Ocean in the United States of America’s state of Florida. Due to its extensive canal system, it is dubbed the “Venice of America.” The city is located in Broward County, South Florida, and has a population of more than 170,000.

While the city of Fort Lauderdale is most known for its beaches and boats, the name ‘Fort Lauderdale’ is often used to refer to the greater metropolis that has built up around it. It is the county capital of Broward county and is included in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan region, which has a population of more than 5.5 million.

When is common of many sections of Florida, the city’s population fluctuates significantly throughout the winter and early spring, as snowbirds from the north spend their winters in Florida. The city is sometimes occasionally referred to as “Fort Liquordale” because to its beaches, bars, and nightclubs, as well as its past as a spring break destination for tens of thousands of college students in the 1960s and 1970s. Since the mid-1980s, however, the city has deliberately prevented college students from visiting the region, enacting stringent restrictions intended at averting the mayhem that happened each year. For spring break 1985, the city received an estimated 350,000 college tourists; by 2006, that number had dwindled to under 10,000.

The territory was initially settled by Seminole Indians in the 18th century. Major William Lauderdale led his Tennessee Volunteers into the region during the Second Seminole War and established New River Fort on the location of the current city in 1838. Frank Stranahan, a young Ohioan, came in 1893 and erected a home that functioned as the area’s first trade post, post office, bank, and town hall. Stranahan House was constructed on the site of the New River Fort and still remains today as a museum.

In 1911, Fort Lauderdale was founded as a municipality and became the county seat of newly constituted Broward County. It originated as an agricultural hamlet dominated by dairy farms and citrus orchards.

Additional expansion occurred as a result of the building of the Naval Air Station, which is today known as the Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport.

Following the conclusion of World War II and the introduction of residential air-conditioning, the city and its neighboring suburbs witnessed unprecedented expansion. Fort Lauderdale became the epicenter of Spring Break in the 1960s with the release of the film “Where the Boys Are.” It is presently the focal point of the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach Metropolitan Region, the country’s sixth biggest metropolitan area.

SITES OF INTEREST

Apart from museums, beaches, and nightlife, Fort Lauderdale is home to the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop, a major indoor/outdoor flea market, and the world’s biggest drive-in movie theater, including 13 screens.

The International Swimming Hall of Fame is situated on the beach in Fort Lauderdale and has a vast aquatic complex, as well as a museum, theater, and research library.

Hugh Taylor Birch State Park is a 180-acre (0.73-kilometer-square) beachfront park featuring nature trails, camping and picnic spaces, canoeing, and the Terramar Visitor Center, which contains exhibits about the park’s environment. In 1893, Hugh Taylor Birch arrived in Florida. He acquired oceanfront land at a cost of around a dollar per acre and ultimately owned a 3.5-mile length of coastline. The Bonnet House is a historic residence located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The contemporary history of Bonnet House started in 1919, when Birch gifted the property to his daughter Helen and her husband, Chicago artist Frederic Clay Bartlett. The property was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and the City of Fort Lauderdale designated it a historic monument in 2002.

The Henry E. Kinney Tunnel on US Route 1 is Florida’s sole tunnel on a state route. It was built in 1960 and runs for 864 feet (263 meters) under the New River and Las Olas Boulevard.

The Florida Everglades is a famous attraction for tourists to Fort Lauderdale. Numerous transportation options exist to transport guests from Fort Lauderdale Beach to the Everglades. The Riverwalk Arts and Entertainment District in downtown Fort Lauderdale is only minutes from the ocean and is home to cultural activities, shopping, parks, and restaurants. Discover the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, the Museum of Discovery and Science with its AutoNation 3D IMAX Theater, the Florida Grand Opera, the Fort Lauderdale Historical Center, Stranahan House, and the Museum of Art along Riverwalk, the brick-lined meandering boulevard.

Las Olas Boulevard is a bustling highway in downtown Fort Lauderdale, connecting Andrews Avenue in the Central Business District to A1A and Fort Lauderdale Beach. The boulevard is a popular destination for residents and tourists alike, since it is conveniently located near Fort Lauderdale beach, the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, and Port Everglades. It is often regarded as the most architecturally distinctive, genuine, and quirky retail and eating area in South Florida.

Climate of Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale’s climate is humid subtropical. Summers are very humid, with temperatures ranging from the high 80s to the low 90s through early October. Summer is when the city receives the majority of its rainfall (the wet season). Winter is pleasant and mostly dry (the dry season), with mild temperatures sometimes punctuated by rain from passing cold fronts.

The summer wet season lasts from May through September. Summers are hot and humid, with tropical winds flowing in from the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, and equatorial Atlantic. Mornings are often bright and sunny, but as the land warms, the air rises and the sea wind kicks in. This draws in more wet, moist air from the sea, and by midday, it is often cloudy, and then there are frequently brief showers in the afternoon, which helps to temper the air and provide for a cooler, typically dryer evening. The Atlantic hurricane season lasts mostly from late July to early November, with the peak of activity coming between mid-August and early October.

Fort Lauderdale, located just above the Tropic of Cancer, receives a significant portion of its winter warmth from the Gulf Stream, which flows only a few miles offshore. Year-round, the Gulf Stream transports warm water up from the tropics.

On an average summer day, the temperature does not go below 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees Celsius). Summer temperatures typically range from the upper 80s to the low 90s (30-35 °C), which are often alleviated by the sea wind, which accompanies occasional afternoon thunderstorms.

Winter has a substantially lower humidity level. In the winter, the average daily high is often between 65 and 75 °F (18-24 °C) and the average daily low is typically around 59 °F (15 °C), seldom falling below 40 °F (4 °C) when a front passes through.

Fort Lauderdale enjoys an abundance of rain, the most of which falls during the summer. Annual precipitation totals of 63.8 inches (1488 mm) are among the highest for a US city. This may seem excessive, but it does not rain that often; when it does, it really pours, a true tropical deluge.

Geography of Fort Lauderdale

The city has a total area of 38.6 square miles (99.9 km2), of which 34.7 square miles (90.0 km2) is land and 3.8 square miles (9.9 km2) is water, according to the United States Census Bureau (9.87 percent ). Fort Lauderdale is well-known for its large network of canals; the city’s waterways total 165 miles (266 kilometers).

Fort Lauderdale is located near to the Atlantic Ocean and has seven miles (11 kilometers) of beaches.

Economy of Fort Lauderdale

The economy of Fort Lauderdale has varied throughout time. From the 1940s until the 1980s, the city was popular with college students as a spring break resort. However, the student population has declined in recent years, as the city has begun to attract affluent travelers. Cruise ships and marine leisure account for a significant portion of tourist earnings. West of the beach and southeast of downtown is a conference center with 600,000 square feet (55,742 m2) of area, including a 200,000-square-foot (18,581 m2) main exhibit hall. Around 30% of the city’s ten million yearly visitors attend conferences at the convention center.

The downtown region, particularly around Las Olas Boulevard, was redeveloped in 2002 and is now home to a slew of new hotels and high-rise condominium buildings. Although other communities in Broward County have business hubs, the downtown area is the biggest. The Las Olas River House, the Las Olas Grand, the 110 Tower (formerly the AutoNation Tower), the Bank of America Plaza, the One Financial Plaza, the Broward Financial Center, One East Broward Boulevard, the Barnett Bank Plaza, the PNC Center, the New River Center, the One Corporate Center, the SunTrust Centre, the 101 Tower, and the SouthTrust Tower are among the office buildings and highrises.

Foreclosure filings in the Fort Lauderdale metropolitan region jumped 127.4 percent from 2006 to 2007, to one every 48 residences in the quarter. Fort Lauderdale is rated fourth among the top ten metropolitan areas in the third quarter of 2007 in terms of foreclosure filings per household.

Fort Lauderdale is a key location for boat production and servicing. Over 109,000 employment are supported by the boating sector in the area. With its many canals and closeness to the Bahamas and Caribbean, it is also a famous yachting holiday destination, with 42,000 yachts and roughly 100 marinas and boatyards calling it home. Additionally, the city attracts approximately 125,000 visitors each year during the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Exhibition, the world’s biggest boat show.

AutoNation, Citrix Systems, DHL Express, Spirit Airlines, and National Beverage Corporation are all headquartered in the Fort Lauderdale region. Tenet Healthcare employs 5,000 workers; American Express employs 4,200; The Continental Group employs 3,900; Motorola employs 3,000; and Maxim Integrated Products employs 2,000.

Gulfstream International Airlines, a commuter airline based in adjacent Dania Beach, is headquartered there. Additionally, the city is home to an Online Trading Academy facility.

Internet, Communication in Fort Lauderdale

To make local phone calls, the whole ten-digit phone number must be provided. As a result, all local phone numbers have an area code. At the moment, the local area codes are (954) and (754), both of which are local, which means you do not dial a 1 first but rather the area code.

You call 954 555 1212 or 754 555 1212, for example.

To call somewhere else, dial 1 followed by the area code. For example, to reach Miami from Fort Lauderdale, dial 1 (305) 555 1212.

For Miami, the area codes are (305) or (786); for Boca Raton and Palm Beach, the area codes are (305) or (786). (561).

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