Port Everglades is a seaport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, located in Broward County.

Port Everglades is one of South Florida's foremost economic engines, as it is the gateway for both international trade and cruise vacations.

[3] Port Everglades' cargo sector has climbed the rankings based on its operational performance among 348 seaports in the world.

The Port Everglades Department is a self-supporting enterprise fund of the Broward County government, with operating revenues of approximately $151.7 million in Fiscal Year 2022.

Port Everglades is consistently ranked among the top three multi-day cruise homeports in the world with 702 ship calls and 1.72 million passengers in Fiscal Year 2022, and the #2 petroleum port in Florida with 588 ship calls and 125.8 million barrels.

[5] Port Everglades is composed of land within three municipalities, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale and Dania Beach and unincorporated Broward County.

The port was originally dredged from Lake Mabel, a natural body of water that was a wide and shallow section of the Florida East Coast Canal system.

In 1913, the Fort Lauderdale Harbor Company was formed and eventually dug out the Lake Mabel Cut, which opened the New River to the sea and created access for small boats.

[6] In 1924, the founder and mayor of the city of Hollywood, Florida, Joseph Wesley Young, bought 1,440 acres (5.8 km2) of land adjacent to the lake.

On February 22, 1928, 85 percent of Broward County's residents gathered for a ceremony in which President Calvin Coolidge was to push a button from the White House detonating explosives to remove the rock barrier separating the harbor from the Atlantic Ocean.

Many of South Florida's local women's clubs agreed that the port needed a new name to better represent the region.

The reason for this was as follows: "The gateway to the rich agricultural area embraced in the 4,000,000 acres (1,600,000 hectares) at the Port's very backdoor.

The project received federal authorization in December 2016 under the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act.

[16] It accommodates major cruise lines such as Princess, Royal Caribbean, Holland, Disney, and Celebrity, among others.

[36] The terminal's exterior design is based on Disney's original homeport at Port Canaveral, while the interior features a Finding Nemo theme.

[38][39][40][41][42][43] Port Everglades' growth has also been marked in a series of world record for most cruise passengers in a single day.