Located in southeastern Florida, Stuart is the largest of five incorporated municipalities in Martin County.

Stuart is the 126th largest city in Florida based on official 2019 estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau.

In the 18th century, several Spanish galleons were shipwrecked in the Martin County area of Florida's Treasure Coast.

The multiple wrecks were reportedly the result of a hurricane, and the ships were carrying unknown quantities of gold and silver.

In 1832, pirate Pedro Gilbert, who often used a sandbar off the coast as a lure to unsuspecting prey, chased and caught the Mexican, a U.S. merchant ship.

Today, the station is known as Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway connected the area to Daytona Beach in 1892 and Miami in 1896.

Late summer brings an increased threat of tropical storms and hurricanes, though landfalls are rare.

[22] Stuart hosts one of the two Florida Department of Health offices in Martin County, the other being in Indiantown.

[citation needed] According to the city's 2011 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report,[24] the top employers in the Stuart area are: Notable historic properties in downtown in range from the early 1880s to 1940s, representing a mix of Beaux-Arts, colonial revival, Spanish mediterranean, Art Deco, frame vernacular, masonry vernacular architecture styles.

Witham Field is a public-use airport located one mile southeast of the central business district owned by Martin County.

Local bus service is provided by Martin County Public Transit (MARTY).

Until 1968 the Florida East Coast Railway operated Jacksonville to Miami service, with a station stop in Stuart.

[32][33][34] In 2023, Brightline, an inter-city rail route that currently runs between Miami and Orlando, announced that it was looking for sites for a new station on the Treasure Coast.

[35] On March 4, 2024, Brightline officially announced that an infill station on the Treasure Coast would be built in Stuart.

[38] Brightline trains cross the St. Lucie River on the Florida East Coast Railroad Bridge.