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City of Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, USA

Jacksonville is a major seaport city and the seat of Duval County, Florida, United States. With an estimated 913,010 residents as of 2017, Jacksonville is the most populous city in both the state of Florida and the southeastern United States. It is estimated to be the 12th most populous city in the United States and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. The Jacksonville metropolitan area has a population of 1,626,611 and is the 34th largest in the United States and fourth largest in the state of Florida.

 

The city is situated on the banks of the St. Johns River, in the First Coast region of North Florida, about 25 miles (40 km) south of the Georgia state line and 340 miles (550 km) north of Miami.

 

Prior to European settlement, the Jacksonville area was inhabited by Native American people known as the Timucua. In 1564, the French established the short-lived colony of Fort Caroline at the mouth of the St. Johns River, becoming one of the earliest European settlements in the continental United States. In 1822, a year after the United States gained Florida from Spain, the town of Jacksonville was platted along the St. Johns River. Established at a narrow point in the river known as Wacca Pilatka to the Seminole and the Cow Ford to the British, the enduring name derives from the first military governor of the Florida Territory and seventh President of the United States, Andrew Jackson.

 

Jacksonville is the cultural, commercial and financial center of North Florida. A major military and civilian deep-water port, the city's riverine location supports two United States Navy bases and the Port of Jacksonville, Florida's third largest seaport. The two US Navy bases, Blount Island Command and the nearby Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, form the third largest military presence in the United States. Jacksonville serves as headquarters for various banking, insurance, healthcare, logistics, and other institutions. These include CSX Corporation, Fidelity National Financial, FIS, Landstar System, Ameris Bancorp, Atlantic Coast Financial, Black Knight Financial Services, EverBank, Rayonier Advanced Materials, Regency Centers, Stein Mart, Web.com, Fanatics, Gate Petroleum, Haskell Company, Interline Brands, Sally Corporation, and Southeastern Grocers. Jacksonville is also home to several colleges and universities, including University of North Florida, Jacksonville University and Florida State College at Jacksonville.

 

The architecture of Jacksonville varies in style and is not defined by any one characteristic. Few structures in the city center predate the Great Fire of 1901. The city is home to one of the largest collections of Prairie School style buildings outside of the Midwest. Following the Great Fire of 1901, Henry John Klutho would come to influence generations of local designers with his works by both the Chicago School, championed by Louis Sullivan, and the Prairie School of architecture, popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright. Jacksonville is also home to a notable collection of Mid-Century modern architecture. Local architects Robert C. Broward, Taylor Hardwick, and William Morgan adapted a range design principles, including International style, Brutalism, Futurism and Organicism, all applied with an American interpretation generally referred to today as Mid-century modern design. The architecture firms of Reynolds, Smith & Hills (RS&H) and Kemp, Bunch & Jackson (KBJ) have also contributed a number of important works to the city's modern architectural movement.

Jacksonville's early predominant position as a regional center of business left an indelibly mark on the city's skyline. Many of the earliest skyscrapers in the state were constructed in Jacksonville, dating as far back as 1902. The city last held the state height record from 1974 to 1981. The tallest building in Downtown Jacksonville's skyline is the Bank of America Tower, constructed in 1990 as the Barnett Center. It has a height of 617 ft (188 m) and includes 42 floors. Other notable structures include the 37-story Wells Fargo Center (with its distinctive flared base making it the defining building in the Jacksonville skyline), originally built in 1972-74 by the Independent Life and Accident Insurance Company, and the 28 floor Riverplace Tower which, when completed in 1967, was the tallest precast, post-tensioned concrete structure in the world.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonville,_Florida

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Uploaded on November 2, 2017
Taken on October 25, 2017