Orlando, Florida

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City of Orlando
Flag Seal
Nickname(s): The City Beautiful
Motto: "Built for Families, Made for Memories"[1]
Location in Orange County and the state of Florida
U.S. Census Map
Coordinates: 28°32′01″N 81°22′6.72″W / 28.53361, -81.3685333
Country	United States
State	Florida
County	Orange
Settled	1875
Government
- Mayor	Buddy Dyer (D)
Area
- City	101.0 sq mi (261.5 km²)
- Land	93.5 sq mi (242.2 km²)
- Water	7.5 sq mi (19.3 km²)
Elevation	98 ft (34 m)
Population (2007)[2]
- City	227,907
- Density	2,180.06/sq mi (842.01/km²)
- Metro	2,032,496UNIQ7d42,548,663d21e5f-ref-00,000,000-QINU
	2007 estimates
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
Area code(s)	321, 407
FIPS code	12-53000[3]
GNIS feature ID	0288240[4]
Website: www.cityoforlando.net

The city of Orlando is a major city in central Florida, USA and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida. It is also the principal city of Greater Orlando. The Orlando-Kissimmee MSA is Florida's third-largest metropolitan area, behind Miami and Tampa. Orlando is also home to the University of Central Florida, which is the second largest university in Florida in student enrollment and has the 6th largest enrollment in the nation.

The city is well known for the many tourist attractions in the area, in particular the nearby Walt Disney World Resort, which is located in Lake Buena Vista about 20 miles (32 km) south of Orlando city limits via Interstate 4. Other notable area attractions include SeaWorld and Universal Orlando Resort. The region sees an estimated 52 million tourists a year. Orlando has the second largest number of hotel rooms in the country (after Las Vegas, Nevada), and is one of the busiest American cities for conferences and conventions with the Orange County Convention Center, the country's second largest in square footage. It is also known for its wide array of golf courses, with numerous courses available for any level of golfer. Despite being several miles away from the main tourist attractions, Downtown Orlando is undergoing major redevelopment with a number of residential and commercial towers.

The city symbol is the fountain of Lake Eola and the current mayor is Buddy Dyer.

History

Historians date Orlando's name to around 1837, when a soldier named Orlando Reeves allegedly died in the area during the war against the Seminole Indian tribe. It seems, however, that Orlando Reeves (sometimes Rees) operated a sugar mill and plantation about 30 miles (50 km) to the north at Spring Garden in Volusia County, and pioneer settlers simply found his name carved into a tree and assumed it was a marker for his grave site. They then referred to the area as "Orlando's grave" and later simply Orlando. A memorial beside Lake Eola designates the spot where the city's namesake fell.

During the Second Seminole War, the U.S. Army established an outpost at Fort Gatlin, a few miles south of the modern downtown, in 1838. But it was quickly abandoned when the war came to an end.

Prior to being known as its current name, Orlando was known as Jernigan, after the first permanent settler, cattleman Aaron Jernigan, who acquired land along Lake Holden by the terms of the Armed Occupation Act of 1842. But most pioneers did not arrive until after the Third Seminole War in the 1850s. Most of the early residents made their living by cattle ranching.

Orlando became the county seat of Orange County in 1856. It remained a rural backwater during the Civil War, and suffered greatly during the Union blockade. The Reconstruction Era brought a population explosion, which led to Orlando's incorporation as a town on 1875-07-31, and as a city in 1885.^[5]

The period from 1875 to 1895 is remembered as Orlando's Golden Era, when it became the hub of Florida's citrus industry. But the Great Freeze in 1894-1895 forced many owners to give up their independent groves, thus consolidating holdings in the hands of a few "citrus barons" who shifted operations south, primarily around Lake Wales in Polk County.

There were a couple of notable homesteaders in the area, including the Curry family. Through their property in east Orlando flowed the Econlockhatchee River, which travelers crossed by fording. This would be commemorated by the street's name, Curry Ford Road. Also, just south of the airport in the Boggy Creek area was 150 acres (0.61 km²) of property homesteaded in the late 1800s by the Ward family. This property is still owned by the Ward family, and can be seen from flights out of MCO southbound immediately on the south side of SR-417.

Orlando, as Florida's largest inland city, became a popular resort during the years between the Spanish-American War and World War I. The city was also host to several SKEET, which serves as the basis for its hospitals today.

In the 1920s, Orlando experienced extensive housing development during the Florida Land Boom. Land prices soared. During this period several neighborhoods in downtown were constructed, endowing it with many bungalows. The boom ended when several hurricanes hit Florida in the late 20s and by the Great Depression.

During World War II, a number of Army personnel were stationed at the Orlando Army Air Base and nearby Pinecastle Army Air Field. Some of these servicemen stayed in Orlando to settle and raise families. In 1956 the aerospace/defense company Martin Marietta (now Lockheed Martin) established a plant in the city. Orlando AAB and Pinecastle AAF were transferred to the United States Air Force in 1947 when it became a separate service and were redesignated as Air Force Bases (AFB). In 1958, Pinecastle AFB was renamed McCoy Air Force Base after Colonel Michael N.W. McCoy, a former commander of the 320th Bombardment Wing at the installation, killed in the crash of a B-47 Stratojet bomber north of Orlando. In the 1960s, the base subsequently became home to the 306th Bombardment Wing of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), operating B-52 Stratofortress and KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft, in addition to detachment operations by EC-121 and U-2 aircraft.

Orlando is close enough to Patrick Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and Kennedy Space Center for residents to commute to work from the city's suburbs. It also allows easy access to Port Canaveral, an important cruise ship terminal. Because of its proximity to the Space Coast near the Kennedy Space Center, many high-tech companies have shifted to the Orlando area.

Perhaps the most critical event for Orlando's economy occurred in 1965 when Walt Disney announced plans to build Walt Disney World. Although Walt had considered the regions of Miami and Tampa for his park, one of the major reasons behind his decision not to locate there was due to hurricanes. Orlando's inland location, although not free from hurricanes, exposed it to less threat than the coast. The famous vacation resort opened in October 1971, ushering in an explosive population and economic growth for the Orlando metropolitan area, which now encompasses Orange, Seminole, Osceola, and Lake counties. As a result, tourism became the centerpiece of the area's economy. Orlando is consistently ranked as one of the top vacation destinations in the world, and now boasts more theme parks and entertainment attractions than anywhere else in the world.

Another major factor in Orlando's growth occurred in 1962, when the new Orlando Jetport, the precursor of the present day Orlando International Airport, was built from a portion of the McCoy Air Force Base. By 1970, four major airlines (Delta Air Lines, National Airlines, Eastern Airlines and Southern Airways) were providing scheduled flights. McCoy Air Force Base officially closed in 1975, and most of it is now part of the airport. The airport still retains the former Air Force Base airport code (MCO).

In addition to McCoy Air Force Base, Orlando also had a naval presence with the establishment of Naval Training Center Orlando on the former Orlando AFB in 1968. The newest of three Naval Training Centers in the United States providing training to recruits, as well as being a base for selected post basic training programs for enlisted personnel, NTC Orlando also conducted nuclear power training for commissioned officers and the base had a prominent presence in the area. In 1993, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission ordered that NTC Orlando be closed, along with a companion installation, NTC San Diego. NTC Orlando continued in a diminished capacity until the base closed for good in 1999 with the last graduates of the base's Naval Nuclear Power School leaving in December of 1998. The former base has been developed into tracts for upscale housing called Baldwin Park. Other than Reserve and National Guard activities, the Orlando area's remaining military presence is the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division/Naval Support Activity Orlando, located just east of the city limits in the Central Florida Research Park. The U.S. Army's Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training and Instrumentation (PEO-STRI), the U.S. Marine Corps' Program Manager for Training Systems (PMTRASYS) and the U.S. Air Force's Agency for Modeling and Simulation are also collocated at that location.

The SunTrust Center, the tallest building in Orlando at 441 ft (134 m), was built in 1988. The next tallest buildings are the Orange County Courthouse (1997, 416 ft (127 m)./127 m), the Bank of America Center (Formerly Barnett Plaza, 1988, 409 ft (125 m)./123 m), Solaire at the Plaza (2006, 359 ft (109 m)./109 m) and the Orlando International Airport ATC Tower (2002, 346 ft (105 m)./105 m). The VUE at Lake Eola, currently under construction, will become the second-tallest building in Orlando upon completion at 426 ft (130 m) tall, but with 35 stories it will have more stories than the SunTrust Center. ^{[6] [7]} The SeaWorld SkyTower, at 400 ft (122 m) tall, is the tallest tower in Orange County outside Orlando proper. There are also several tall transmission towers in Orange County, the tallest of which is the WFTV transmission tower in Christmas at 1,617 ft (491.6 m) tall.

In the hurricane season of 2004, Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne battered the Orlando area, causing widespread damage and flooding and impeding tourism to the area.

Geography

Topography

Orlando is located at 28°32′1″N, 81°22′33″W (28.533513, -81.375789).^[8] According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 261.5 km² (101 mi²). 242.2 km² (93.5 mi²) of it is land and 19.3 km² (7.5 mi²) of it (7.39%) is water. Orlando is, on average, 106 feet (32 m) above sea level.

Climate

Orlando has a warm and humid subtr