Smathers Beach is the largest public beach in Key West, Florida, United States. It is approximately a half mile long.
The beach is located on the south side of the island, along the Atlantic Ocean and State Road A1A, and begins at mile marker zero, the beginning of A1A. The beach is lined with coconut trees and is often crowded with tourists and locals alike.
On September 2, 2013, long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad arrived on Smathers Beach after swimming 110 miles (166 kilometers) from Havana, Cuba. It was the first time a person had ever swum from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. [1] 24°33′04″N81°46′18″W / 24.551193°N 81.771798°W
Smathers Beach is named after George Smathers (1913-2007), a U.S. Senator for Florida and friend of President John F. Kennedy.
Jacksonville Beach is a coastal resort city in Duval County, Florida, United States. It was incorporated on May 22, 1907, as Pablo Beach, and changed to Jacksonville Beach in 1925. The city is part of group of communities collectively referred to as the Jacksonville Beaches. These communities include Mayport, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and Ponte Vedra Beach. When the city of Jacksonville consolidated with Duval County in 1968, Jacksonville Beach, together with Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and Baldwin, voted to retain their own municipal governments. As a result, citizens of Jacksonville Beach are also eligible to vote in mayoral election for the City of Jacksonville. As of the 2020 US census, Jacksonville Beach had a total population of 23,830.
Neptune Beach is a beachfront city east of Jacksonville in Duval County, Florida, United States. When the majority of Duval County communities consolidated with Jacksonville in 1968, Neptune Beach, along with Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach and Baldwin remained quasi-independent. Like those other municipalities, it maintains its own municipal government but its residents vote in the Jacksonville mayoral election and are represented on the Jacksonville city council. As of the 2020 census, the population is 7,217. Neptune Beach is the smallest of the Jacksonville Beaches communities.
Beverly Beach is a town in Flagler County, Florida, United States. The Town of Beverly Beach is part of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach, FL metropolitan statistical area. The population was 474 at the 2020 census, up from 338 in the 2010 census.
Flagler Beach is a city in Flagler County in the U.S. state of Florida. The population was 5,160 at the 2020 census.
Hobe Sound is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) in Martin County, Florida, United States, located along Florida's Treasure Coast. The population was 13,163 at the 2020 census, up from 11,521 in 2010.
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it constitutes the City of Key West.
Palm Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in St. Johns County, Florida, United States. The population was 19,860 at the 2000 census.
St. Augustine Beach is a city in St. Johns County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,803 at the 2020 US census.
State Road A1A (SR A1A) is a major north–south Florida State Road consisting of seven separate sections running a total of 338.752 miles (545.168 km) along the Atlantic Ocean, from Key West at the southern tip of Florida, to Fernandina Beach, just south of Georgia on Amelia Island. It is the main road through most oceanfront towns. Part of SR A1A is designated the A1A Scenic and Historic Coastal Byway, a National Scenic Byway. A portion of SR A1A that passes through Volusia County is designated the Ormond Scenic Loop and Trail, a Florida Scenic Highway. It is also called the Indian River Lagoon Scenic Highway from State Road 510 at Wabasso Beach to U.S. Route 1 in Cocoa. SR A1A is famous worldwide as a center of beach culture in the United States, a scenic coastal route through most Atlantic coastal cities and beach towns, including the unique tropical coral islands of the Florida Keys. SR A1A also serves as a major thoroughfare through Miami Beach and other south Florida coastal cities.
George Armistead Smathers was an American lawyer and politician from the state of Florida who served in both chambers of the United States Congress, the United States House of Representatives from 1947 to 1951 and the United States Senate from 1951 to 1969. He was a member of the Democratic Party.
Diana Nyad is an American author, journalist, motivational speaker, and long-distance swimmer. Nyad gained national attention in 1975 when she swam around Manhattan in record time, and in 1979 when she swam from Bimini, The Bahamas, to Juno Beach, Florida.
State Road 732 (SR 732) comprises two segments of a state highway in the Jensen Beach, Florida vicinity. The western 2.2-mile-long (3.5 km) segment is a part of Jensen Beach Boulevard between U.S. Route 1 (US 1) and County Road 723 (CR 723) and CR 707A. The eastern 1.9-mile-long (3.1 km) segment consists of Causeway Boulevard and the Jensen Beach Causeway over the Indian River Lagoon and runs between CR 707 and SR A1A.
The Southernmost Point Buoy is an anchored concrete buoy in Key West, Florida, marking the southernmost point in the continental United States, the lowest latitude land of contiguous North American states. It is 18 feet above sea level. The large painted buoy was established as a tourist attraction in 1983 by the city at the corner of South Street and Whitehead Street.
Jack Weyman Nelson was an American competition swimmer and swimming coach.
The Streamline Hotel is a hotel located in Daytona Beach, Florida. Opened in 1941, it is the recognized birthplace of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR).
Walter Poenisch was an American baker and long-distance swimmer. In 1963, at the age of 50, Poenisch began his professional swimming career by swimming in the Jim Moran Lake Michigan Swim, a 30-mile professional marathon swim in Lake Michigan.
Michelle Davidson, is a U.S. Masters Swimmer and a long distance, open water swimmer. She is one of only 84 swimmers in the world who have ever accomplished the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, which includes crossing the English Channel and Catalina Channel, and circumnavigating Manhattan Island.
Ready to fly is an American documentary by William A. Kerig following the true story of the fight of American women's ski jumping athletes Lindsey Van, the rest of her U.S. Women's Ski jumping Team members, Jessica Jerome, Alissa Johnson, Abby Hughes, Sarah Hendrickson and many other elite ski jumping athletes around the world to be part of the Olympic Winter Games. It was first screened during the 2013 Banff Mountain Film Festival.
Summer Haven is an unincorporated community in southeast St. Johns County, Florida, United States, located just south of the Matanzas Inlet, on a narrow strip of land between a shallow marsh and the Atlantic Ocean.
Nyad is a 2023 American biographical sports drama film about swimmer Diana Nyad's multiple attempts in the early 2010s to swim the Straits of Florida, with flashbacks to her early life. It is directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin and written by Julia Cox, based on Nyad's 2015 memoir Find a Way. It stars Annette Bening as Nyad, with Jodie Foster and Rhys Ifans in supporting roles.