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Fort Lauderdale is a taste of paradise, from the white sand beaches to the mega-yacht-filled waterways. Your next getaway can be as awe-inspiring as miles of bustling waterways, as inviting as soft golden sands and as soothing as gentle ocean breezes. If your next escape is in Fort Lauderdale, that is.
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Fort Lauderdale. Once the spring break capital for the college crowd, Greater Fort Lauderdale has undergone a renaissance, committing major resources to attract families and couples. Ft. Lauderdale has invested $2 billion in tourism-related infrastructure, with a staggering $502.5 million in new attractions.
The vibrant city of Fort Lauderdale boasts a tremendous variety of cultural, historical, and social activities.
In the downtown area along the New River, points of interest include the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, the Museum of Discovery and Science, the Museum of Arts, and the historic Stranahan House (all within walking distance of each other).
Fort Lauderdale's beaches are, of course, a popular draw. Stroll, bike, or skate along Atlantic Boulevard and the Beach Promenade, or take part in the many watersports available, such as kite surfing.
Fort Lauderdale is also known as the "Venice of America," due to its extensive canal system. A water taxi tour along the inland canals will give you easy and inexpensive access to major points throughout the city, as well as allow you a glimpse of the rich and famous along what's known as "Millionaire's Row."
See the new World Aquarium;
Don't miss the interesting historic properties and cultural activities in "Old Fort Lauderdale";
The African-American Research Library and Cultural Center is a great place to relax.
The Las Olas Riverfront entertaiment and retail complex; Dania's new Outdoor World attraction; and a major expansion at Sawgrass Mills, the world's largest outlet mall.
Popular with walkers, cyclists and rollerbladers, the Fort Lauderdale Beach Promenade along Atlantic Boulevard recently underwent a $20 million renovation, providing scenic and easy access to miles of golden sand beaches. Besides the new attractions, visitors also enjoy excellent diving and golfing here.
Shoppers will want to explore the unique boutiques of Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale and Dania's thriving antiques district.
Fort Lauderdale History
Main article: History of Fort Lauderdale, Florida
The area in which the city of Fort Lauderdale would later be founded was inhabited for more than a thousand years by the Tequesta Indians. Contact with Spanish explorers in the 16th century proved disastrous for the Tequesta, as the Europeans unwittingly brought with them diseases to which the native populations possessed no resistance, such as smallpox. For the Tequesta, disease, coupled with continuing conflict with their Calusa neighbors, contributed greatly to their decline over the next two centuries. By 1763, there were only a few Tequesta left in Florida, and most of them were evacuated to Cuba when the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in 1763, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1763), which ended the Seven Years' War. Although control of the area changed between Spain, United Kingdom, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, it remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century.
The Fort Lauderdale area was known as the "New River Settlement" before the 20th century. In the 1830s there were approximately 70 settlers living along the New River. William Cooley, the local Justice of the Peace, was a farmer and wrecker, who traded with the Seminole Indians. On January 6, 1836, while Cooley was leading an attempt to salvage a wrecked ship, a band of Seminoles attacked his farm, killing his wife and children, and the children's tutor. The other farms in the settlement were not attacked, but all the white residents in the area abandoned the settlement, fleeing first to the Cape Florida Lighthouse on Key Biscayne, and then to Key West.
The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838, and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War. The fort was abandoned in 1842, after the end of the war, and the area remained virtually unpopulated until the 1890s. It was not until Frank Stranahan arrived in the area in 1893 to operate a ferry across the New River, and the Florida East Coast Railroad's completion of a route through the area in 1896, that any organized development began. The city was incorporated in 1911, and in 1915 was designated the county seat of newly formed Broward County.
Fort Lauderdale's first major development began in the 1920s, during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the Great Depression of the 1930s caused a great deal of economic dislocation. When World War II began, Fort Lauderdale became a major US base, with a Naval Air Station to train pilots, radar operators, and fire control operators, and a Coast Guard base at Port Everglades was also established.
After the war ended, service members returned to the area, spurring an enormous population explosion which dwarfed the 1920s boom. Today, Fort Lauderdale is a major yachting center, one of the nation's largest tourist destinations, and the center of a metropolitan division with 1.8 million people.
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