Fort Lauderdale (/ˈlɔːdərdeɪl/ LAW-dər-dayl) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, 30 miles (48 km) north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean.

[14] In addition to tourism, Fort Lauderdale has a diversified economy including marine, manufacturing, finance, insurance, real estate, high technology, avionics/aerospace, film, and television production.

[18] Contact with Spanish explorers in the 16th century proved disastrous for the Tequesta, as the Europeans brought with them diseases, such as smallpox, to which the native populations possessed no resistance.

[20] The first United States stockade named Fort Lauderdale was built in 1838,[21] and subsequently was a site of fighting during the Second Seminole War.

In July 1935, an African-American man named Rubin Stacy was accused of robbing a white woman at knifepoint.

[25] The murder was subsequently used by the press in Nazi Germany to discredit U.S. critiques of its own persecution of Jews, Communists, and Catholics.

[31] After the war ended, service members returned to the area, spurring an enormous population explosion that dwarfed the 1920s boom.

[38] The city of Fort Lauderdale is adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean, includes 7 miles (11 km) of beaches,[39] and borders the following municipalities:[citation needed] On its east: On its south: On its southwest: On its west: On its northwest: On its north: The northwestern section of Fort Lauderdale is separate from the remainder of the city, connected only by the Cypress Creek Canal as it flows under I-95.

The tires then migrated shoreward, and ran into a living reef tract, washed up on its slope, and killed many things in their path.

During this period, more than half of summer days may bring brief afternoon or evening thunderstorms with lightning and bursts of intense rainfall.

On rare occasions, cool fronts may make it all the way south to Fort Lauderdale, and the city will see a day or two of highs in the 60s °F (16–21 °C) and lows in the 40s °F (4–10 °C).

This began a period of stagnation for the city of Fort Lauderdale, even as the metro area and the county continued their population boom.

There is a convention center west of the beach and southeast of downtown, with 600,000 square feet (55,742 m2) of space, including a 200,000-square-foot (18,581 m2) main exhibit hall.

[98] The downtown area, especially around Las Olas Boulevard, first underwent redevelopment starting in 2002,[99] and now hosts many new hotels and high-rise condominium developments.

[102] With its many canals, and proximity to the Bahamas and Caribbean, it is also a popular yachting vacation stop, and home port for 42,000 boats, and approximately 100 marinas and boatyards.

[107] The city is known for its beaches, bars, nightclubs, and history as a spring break location, back in the 1960s and 1970s, for tens of thousands of college students.

[108] The city has discouraged college students from visiting the area since the mid-1980s, however, by passing strict laws aimed at preventing the mayhem that occurred in the 1970s and 1980s.

[95] Since the 1990s, Fort Lauderdale has increasingly catered to those seeking the resort lifestyle seasonally or year-round, and is often a host city to many professional venues, concerts, and art shows.

The district is anchored in the West by the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, and runs through the city to the intersection of Las Olas and A1A.

This intersection is the "ground zero" of Fort Lauderdale Beach, and is the site of the Elbo Room bar featured in the 1960 film Where the Boys Are, which led in large measure to the city's former reputation as a spring break mecca.

In 2013, the county welcomed about 1.3 million LGBT travelers who spent about $1.5 billion in area restaurants, hotels, attractions, and shops, according to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.

It was the home of the original Fort Lauderdale Strikers, which played in the previous version of the North American Soccer League.

The War Memorial Auditorium has hosted professional wrestling, boxing, and mixed martial arts shows since its opening in 1950.

[140] According to 2000 census data, 79.0% of the city's population aged 25 or older were high school graduates, slightly below the national figure of 80.4%.

In November 2006, Broward County voters rejected[147] a one-cent-per-hundred sales tax increase intended to fund transportation projects, such as light rail and bus system expansion.

Broward County (BCT) had committed to operating the system for the first 10 years at an expected annual cost of $2 million, and had guaranteed funding to cover any shortfall in ridership revenues.

[149] The construction cost of $50 million per mile was considerably higher than other recently built streetcar projects, in part due to the challenges of building an electric transit system over the 3rd Avenue drawbridge.

[150] The Sun Trolley is a bus service, running buses (styled as streetcars) around Fort Lauderdale and Broward County.

[151] Brightline has a station in Fort Lauderdale, which connects to Miami and West Palm Beach with multiple trains daily.

The hospital serves as a major training site for medical students from Nova Southeastern University's College of Osteopathic Medicine, as well as nursing and paramedic programs from throughout the area.