Discount Rental Cars Jacksonville, FL

Jacksonville Attractions and Things to See

Jacksonville is the biggest city in Florida, with both population and land mass, and actually, the biggest city in America by size, located in the First Coast region of northeast Florida, centered on the banks of the St. Johns River, some 25 miles south of the Georgia border and over 300 miles north of Miami. Its beaches communities can be found on the Atlantic coast next to it, originally inhabited by the Timucua people, and the site of a French colony called Fort Caroline in 1564, which had been one of the earliest European settlements in the New World that would become the United States. During the state's British era, a small community would begin to grow at the narrowest point in the St. Johns River, where cattle could cross, and called Wacca Pilatka to the natives and Cowford by the British. It was incorporated in 1822, one year after this nation acquired it from Spain and renamed after Andrew Jackson, the first military governor of the territory and the seventh President of the United States. Following the late 19th century, significant harbor improvements would make the city a major civilian and military deep-water port, with its rivertine location housing two naval bases and the Port of Jacksonville, the state's third biggest seaport. The economy is spurred on by banking, health care and insurance, with tourism an important part of that economy as well and especially to the golf industry. The area around and inside it have been inhabited for thousands of years, where on Black Hammock Island housing the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, where a team from the University of North Florida would discover some of the oldest remains of pottery in this country, that dated to 2500 BC.
The city has over 500 neighborhoods, and it also operates the biggest urban park system in the nation, taking care of 337 locations that are located on over 80,000 acres in the city, with fabulous natural beauty from the Atlantic Ocean and St. Johns River, with many of the parks giving excellent access to boaters, swimmers, waterski sports, fishermen, sailboating, surfing and jetskiing, with a number of the parks getting international recognition, especially Kids Kampus, that is great for families with small children. Tree Hill Nature Center is a marvelous nature preserve that is just five minutes from the downtown area, and home to an environmental education center, a butterfly center, 50 acres of nature trails, surrounded by hilltops and wetland areas that contain southern mixed hardwood forests, freshwater streams and mixed hardwood swamps and a wildlife center.
Jacksonville has a wonderful entertainment and performing arts venue, with the Florida Theater opening in 1927, to become only one of the four remaining high style movie palaces that had been constructed in state during the Mediterranean Revival architectural boom of the 1920s. The Amity Turkish Cultural Center opened in 2006, Theater Jacksonville opened in 1919, the Ritz theater opened in 1929, in the LaVilla neighborhood that had been the scene of the 1930s, when it would be called the Harlem of the South. The city has many yearly events, and a multitude of attractions that include the Jacksonville Riverwalks, Jacksonville Landing, Friendship Fountain, the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville or MOCA Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Maritime Museum, the Museum of Science and History, Alexander Brest Planetarium, the Alexander Brest Museum and Gallery that houses three magnificent floors of carved ivory, Chinese porcelain, Tiffany glass, Boehm porcelain, pre-Columbian relics and Steuben glass. There is also the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, the Karpeles Manuscript Library that houses the world's biggest collection of original manuscripts and documents, the Catherine Street Fire Station, the LaVilla Museum and many more to numerous to list here.  The city has many restaurants, chain restaurants, fast food joints, international eating establishments and more that is sure to please your palate, and fill you to the brim with fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh fish and the best chefs around.