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Fort Lauderdale, known as the "Venice of America" due to its expansive and intricate canal system, is a city in Broward County, Florida, United States. According to 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimates, the city had a population of 183,606. It is the county seat of Broward County, and a principal city of the South Florida metropolitan area, which is home to over 5,413,212 people. The city is a popular tourist destination, with 10.35 million visitors in 2006. The city is a major yachting center, with 42,000 resident yachts and 100 marinas and boatyards. Fort Lauderdale and its suburbs host over 4100 restaurants and 120 nightclubs.
Fort Lauderdale is named after a series of forts built by the United States during the Second Seminole War. However, development of the city did not begin until 50 years after the forts were abandoned at the end of the conflict. Three forts named "Fort Lauderdale" were constructed; the first was at the fork of the New River, the second at Tarpon Bend, in what is now known as the Sailboat Bend neighborhood, and the third near the site of the Bahia Mar Marina. The forts took their name from Major William Lauderdale, who was the commander of the detachment of soldiers who built the first fort. Fort Lauderdale technically has a tropical rain forest climate (Köppen climate classification Af), although the climate is rather unlike the Amazon rain forest; the city, like most of southeast Florida, features hot, humid, wet summers, and warm, dry winters. Fort Lauderdale's winters, however, are slightly wetter than those in nearby Miami (which has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen climate classification Am), and thus the city falls under the tropical rain forest classification. The city does experience cold fronts from November through March; the average monthly temperature for any month, however, has never been recorded as being under 64.4 °F (January averages 66 °F), thus rendering the climate truly tropical. Most of the year is warm and humid, and the summers are almost identical to the climate of the Caribbean tropics. In addition, the city gets most of its rain in the summer (wet season) and is relatively dry in winter (dry season). The wet season, which is hot and humid, lasts from May to October, when it gives way to the dry season, which features mild temperatures with some invasions of colder air, which is when the little winter rainfall occurs — with the passing of a front. The hurricane season largely coincides with the wet season. 69% of the city's annual rainfall occurs during the five month summer period. The hurricane season is between June 1 and November 30, with major hurricanes most likely to affect Florida in September and October. The most recent storms to directly affect the city were Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Wilma, both of which struck the city in 2005; other direct hits were Hurricane Cleo in 1964, Hurricane King in 1950 and the 1947 Fort Lauderdale Hurricane. 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%. 27.9% held at least a baccalaureate, slightly higher than the national figure of 24.4%. Broward County Public Schools operates 23 public schools in Fort Lauderdale. 2007 Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) results for Fort Lauderdale's public schools were mixed; while ten (of sixteen) elementary schools and one (of four) middle schools received "A" or "B" grades, Sunland Park Elementary School and Arthur Ashe Middle School received failing grades. Boyd Anderson High School, which is located in Lauderdale Lakes but whose attendance zone includes part of Fort Lauderdale, also received a failing grade. None of the three failing schools have failed twice in a four-year period, thus triggering the "Opportunity Scholarship Program" school choice provisions of the Florida's education plan. Five institutions of higher learning have main or satellite campuses in the city: - The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale |
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