Sunday, May 14, 2006

Florida

8:06:00 AM / 0 comments

Florida is a U.S. state located in the southeastern United States. Most of the state is a large peninsula with the Gulf of Mexico on its west and the Atlantic Ocean on its east. It has a warm and humid subtropical climate. It was named by Juan Ponce de León, who landed on the coast on April 2, 1513, during Pascua Florida. Florida is Spanish for "Flowery Easter," referring to the Easter season. Florida's economy relies heavily on tourism.

Geography

Florida is situated mostly on a large peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean, and the Straits of Florida. It extends to the northwest into a panhandle, extending along the northern Gulf of Mexico. It is bordered on the north by the states of Georgia and Alabama, and on the west, at the end of the panhandle, by Alabama. It is near the countries of the Caribbean, particularly the Bahamas and Cuba.

At 345 feet (105 m) above mean sea level, Britton Hill is the highest point in Florida and the lowest highpoint of any U.S. state. Contrary to popular belief, however, Florida is not entirely "flat." Some places, such as Clearwater, feature vistas that rise 50 to 100 feet (15–30 m) above the water. Much of the interior of Florida, typically 25 miles (40 km) or more away from the coastline, features rolling hills with elevations ranging from 100 to 250 feet (30–76 m) in many locations. Lake County holds the highest point of peninsular Florida, Sugarloaf Mountain, at 312 feet (95 m).

Areas under control by the National Park Service include:

  • Big Cypress National Preserve, near Lake Okeechobee
  • Biscayne National Park, near Key Biscayne
  • Canaveral National Seashore, near Titusville
  • Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, in St. Augustine
  • De Soto National Memorial, in Bradenton
  • Dry Tortugas National Park, at Key West
  • Everglades National Park
  • Fort Caroline National Memorial, at Jacksonville
  • Fort Matanzas National Monument, in St. Augustine
  • Gulf Islands National Seashore, near Gulf Breeze
  • Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, in Jacksonville

Boundaries

The state line begins in the Atlantic Ocean, traveling west, south, and north up the thalweg of the Saint Mary's River. At the origin of that river, it then follows a straight line nearly due west and slightly north, to the point where the confluence of the Flint River (from Georgia) and the Chattahoochee River (down the Alabama/Georgia line) used to form Florida's Apalachicola River. (Since Woodruff Dam was built, this point has been under Lake Seminole.) The border with Georgia continues north through the lake for a short distance up the former thalweg of the Chattahoochee, then with Alabama runs due west along latitude 31°N to the Perdido River, then south along its thalweg to the Gulf via Perdido Bay.



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