Overview
Miami is Florida's second largest city and the largest metropolitan area in the state. Known as the "Magic City", it was originally settled by the Tequesta Indians thousands of years ago. Sparsely populated until the 1890's, a local landowner named Julia Tuttle persuaded Standard Oil founder Henry Flagler to extend his railroad to Miami and build a resort. Miami was incorporated on July 28, 1896.
The city grew rapidly in its first thirty years until a hurricane and the Great Depression ended the real estate boom. Post World War II Miami prospered mainly on tourism. The 1960's brought an influx of Cuban settlers. Subsequent waves of settlers from the Caribbean, South America and Europe have changed the cultural, political and business climate of the city.
Due to this diversity, Miami has emerged as a major center of international trade and finance. Many multinational companies have based their Latin American headquarters in the city. A gleaming row of skyscrapers line Brickell Avenue, the heart of the city's financial district and home to many foreign banks and financial firms.
The Port of Miami is one of the largest cruise ship ports in the world as well as a major cargo container port in the US. While tourism plays an important role in the economy, it is international commerce that truly makes Miami the "Crossroads of the Americas".
"SoBe"
South Beach really came into its own some twenty years ago, with a little help from the hit show "Miami Vice". The show, about two detectives clad in outrageously expensive designer pastels, driving Ferraris and million-dollar cigarette boats, was in part responsible for Miami Beach rising to international attention in the mid-1980s. The show's slick look, soundtrack and music video montages glamorized the rich life here in South Florida, and before long people were coming down to see it. By the late 1980s, Miami Beach had risen to international fame. Celebrities arrived in their droves, photo shoots of global fashion empires were being held here, and the Art Deco District was going through a renovation that turned the city into a showpiece of fashion and chic.
To this day Miami continues to flourish: the blithe, brash boomtown has a few tricks up it's glittery sleeve yet...
