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The city of Orlando is a major city in central Florida,
USA and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida. A
2006 U.S. Census population estimate gave the city of Orlando
a population of 220,186 residents. It is also the principal
city of Greater Orlando. The Orlando-Kissimmee MSA is Florida's
third-largest metropolitan area, behind Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami
Beach and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater. 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.
History
Some 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."
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 racing.
Orlando remained a rural backwater during the American
Civil War, and suffered greatly during the Union blockade.
The Reconstruction Era brought a population explosion,
which led to the city's incorporation in 1875.
The period from 1875 to 1895 is remembered
as Orlando's "Gilded
Era," when it became the hub of Florida's citrus industry.
But a 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" which shifted
operations south, primarily around Lake Wales in Polk County.
There are a couple of notable homesteaders
in the area. First is the Curry family. On their property
in east Orlando there was the Econlockhatchee River and
every time it had to be crossed the settlers would "ford the river".
This lends its name to one of Orlando's roads, Curry Ford
Rd. Also, just south of the airport in the Boggy Creek
area was 150 acres 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 a large housing boom.
Land prices soared. During this period several neighborhoods
in downtown were constructed leaving behind many bungalows.
The boom ended when several hurricanes hit Florida in the
late 20s and by the 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 Orlando. 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)
would not expose it to an increased threat like coastal
locations. 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 and
Orlando is consistently ranked as one of the top vacation
destinations in the world, now boasting 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. ([2][3]
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.
Special Thanks to : Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
and Las Vegas Tourism Bureau
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