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Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous
city proper A city proper is the geographical area contained within city limits. The term ''proper'' is not exclusive to city, cities; it can describe the geographical area within the boundaries of any given locality. The United Nations defines the term as " ...
in the
U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its so ...
of
Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
, located on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. It is the
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
of Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonville consolidated in 1968. It was the largest city by area in the
contiguous United States The contiguous United States, also known as the U.S. mainland, officially referred to as the conterminous United States, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia of the United States in central North America. The te ...
as of 2020, and became the 10th largest U.S. city by population in 2023. Jacksonville straddles the
St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...
in the First Coast region of northeastern Florida, about south of the Georgia state line ( to the urban core/downtown) and north of
Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...
. The Jacksonville Beaches communities are along the adjacent Atlantic coast. The area was originally inhabited by the
Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The va ...
people, and in 1564 was the site of the French colony of Fort Caroline, one of the earliest European settlements in what is now the continental United States. Under
British rule The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or dire ...
, a settlement grew at the narrow point in the river where cattle crossed, known as ''Wacca Pilatka'' to the
Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...
and the Cow Ford to the British. A
plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Survey System, Public Lands Surveys to ...
ted town was established there in 1822, a year after the United States gained
Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
from Spain; it was named after
Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...
, the first military governor of the
Florida Territory The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 30, 1822, until March 3, 1845, when it was admitted to the Union as the state of Florida. Originally the major portion of the Spanish ...
and seventh President of the United States. Harbor improvements since the late 19th century have made Jacksonville a major military and civilian deep-water port. Its riverine location facilitates Naval Station Mayport, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, the U.S. Marine Corps
Blount Island Command Blount Island Command is a Marine Corps support facility located in Jacksonville, Florida. History In 1977, President Carter, President Jimmy Carter signed the directive that created the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force. By 1980, the Marine ...
, and the Port of Jacksonville (JAXPORT), Florida's largest seaport by volume."JAXPORT FY23 Statistics"
Jacksonville Port Authority
Jacksonville's military bases and the nearby Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay form the third largest military presence in the United States."Port of Jacksonville"
World Port Source, Port Detail
Significant factors in the local economy include services such as banking, insurance, healthcare and logistics. As with much of Florida, tourism is important to the Jacksonville area, particularly tourism related to
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
with the
PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...
headquarters located in nearby Ponte Vedra Beach. People from Jacksonville are known as Jacksonvillians and, informally, as Jaxsons or Jaxons (both derived from Jax, the shortened nickname for the city). City-county consolidation greatly increased Jacksonville's official population and extended its boundaries, placing most of Duval County's population within the new municipal limits; Jacksonville grew to . As of July
2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...
, Jacksonville's population was 971,319, while the population of Duval County was about 1 million. After consolidation, Jacksonville became the most populous city in Florida and the
Southeastern United States The Southeastern United States, also known as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical List of regions in the United States, region of the United States located in the eastern portion of the Southern United States and t ...
, and the largest in the South outside the state of Texas. With a population of 1,733,937, the Jacksonville metropolitan area ranks as Florida's fourth-largest metropolitan region. The metropolitan area consists of Clay County, St. Johns County, Nassau County, and Baker County.


History


Early history

The area of the modern city of Jacksonville has been inhabited for thousands of years. On Black Hammock Island in the national Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, a University of North Florida team discovered some of the oldest remnants of
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
in the United States, dating to 2500 BCE. In the 16th century, the beginning of the historical era, the region was inhabited by the Mocama, a coastal subgroup of the
Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The va ...
people. At the time of contact with Europeans, all Mocama villages in present-day Jacksonville were part of the powerful
chiefdom A chiefdom is a political organization of people representation (politics), represented or government, governed by a tribal chief, chief. Chiefdoms have been discussed, depending on their scope, as a stateless society, stateless, state (polity) ...
known as the Saturiwa, centered around the mouth of the
St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...
. One early French map shows a village called ''Ossachite'' at the site of what is now downtown Jacksonville; this may be the earliest recorded name for that area. In 1562, French
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
explorer Jean Ribault charted the
St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...
, calling it the River of May because that was the month of his discovery. Ribault erected a stone column at his landing site near the river's mouth, claiming the newly discovered land for France. In 1564, René Goulaine de Laudonnière established the first European settlement on the St. Johns River, Fort Caroline, near the main village of the Saturiwa.
Philip II of Spain Philip II (21 May 152713 September 1598), sometimes known in Spain as Philip the Prudent (), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from 1580, and King of Naples and List of Sicilian monarchs, Sicily from 1554 until his death in 1598. He ...
ordered
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (; ; 15 February 1519 – 17 September 1574) was a Spanish admiral, explorer and conquistador from Avilés, in Asturias, Spain. He is notable for planning the first regular trans-oceanic convoys, which became known as ...
to protect the interests of Spain by attacking the French at Fort Caroline. On September 20, 1565, a Spanish force from the nearby Spanish settlement of St. Augustine attacked Fort Caroline, and killed nearly all the French soldiers defending it. The Spanish renamed the fort as ''San Mateo'' and, following the expulsion of the French, St. Augustine became the most important European settlement in Florida. The location of Fort Caroline is subject to debate, but a reconstruction of the fort was established in 1964 along the St. Johns River. Spain ceded Florida to the British in 1763 as part of the Treaty of Paris in the aftermath of the
Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War, 1756 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...
(known as the
French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...
on the North American front). The British soon constructed the King's Road connecting St. Augustine to
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...
. The road crossed the St. Johns River at a narrow point, which the
Seminole The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, ...
called ''Wacca Pilatka'' and the British called the Cow Ford; these names reflected the use of the ford for moving cattle across the river there. The British introduced the cultivation of
sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...
,
indigo InterGlobe Aviation Limited (d/b/a IndiGo), is an India, Indian airline headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. It is the largest List of airlines of India, airline in India by passengers carried and fleet size, with a 64.1% domestic market ...
, and fruits as
cash crop A cash crop, also called profit crop, is an Agriculture, agricultural crop which is grown to sell for profit. It is typically purchased by parties separate from a farm. The term is used to differentiate a marketed crop from a staple crop ("subsi ...
s on plantations, in addition to exporting lumber. A large number of British colonists who were "energetic and of good character" were given land grants in the region and emigrated to the region, becoming the first English-speaking population in Florida. These colonists came from England, Georgia, South Carolina and Bermuda. British judges introduced the system of
common law Common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law primarily developed through judicial decisions rather than statutes. Although common law may incorporate certain statutes, it is largely based on prece ...
to Florida, resulting in the Floridian legal system utilizing concepts such as trial-by-jury,
habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a legal procedure invoking the jurisdiction of a court to review the unlawful detention or imprisonment of an individual, and request the individual's custodian (usually a prison official) to ...
and county-based government. After their defeat in the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...
, Britain returned control of the territory to Spain in 1783 via the Peace of Paris. The settlement at the Cow Ford continued to grow.


Founding and 19th century

After Spain ceded the
Florida Territory The Territory of Florida was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 30, 1822, until March 3, 1845, when it was admitted to the Union as the state of Florida. Originally the major portion of the Spanish ...
to the United States in 1821, American settlers on the north side of the Cow Ford decided to plan a town, laying out the streets and plats. They named the town Jacksonville, after celebrated war hero and first Territorial Governor (later U.S. president)
Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before Presidency of Andrew Jackson, his presidency, he rose to fame as a general in the U.S. Army and served in both houses ...
. Led by Isaiah D. Hart, residents wrote a charter for a town government, which the Florida Legislative Council approved on February 9, 1832. During the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
, Duval County produced several units that fought for the
Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...
. At least two were raised out of Jacksonville: the Jacksonville Light Infantry, a militia unit formed in 1859, and the Duval County Cow Boys, mustered in during the summer of 1861. Both units fought as part of the 3rd Florida Infantry. The St. John's Greys, the Milton Artillery, and Company H of 1st Florida Cavalry Regiment were also all formed by men from Jacksonville. Jacksonville was also a key supply point for hogs and cattle shipped from Florida to feed the Confederate forces. The city was blockaded by Union forces, who gained control of nearby Fort Clinch. Though no battles were fought in Jacksonville proper, the city changed hands several times between Union and Confederate forces. In the Skirmish of the Brick Church in 1862, Confederates won their first victory in the state. However, Union forces captured a Confederate position at the Battle of St. Johns Bluff, and occupied Jacksonville in 1862. Slaves escaped to freedom in Union lines. In February 1864 Union forces left Jacksonville and confronted a
Confederate Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fi ...
at the Battle of Olustee, going down to defeat. Union forces retreated to Jacksonville and held the city for the remainder of the war. In March 1864 a Confederate cavalry confronted a Union expedition in the Battle of Cedar Creek. Warfare and the long occupation left the city disrupted after the war. During
Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *''Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Union ...
and the
Gilded Age In History of the United States, United States history, the Gilded Age is the period from about the late 1870s to the late 1890s, which occurred between the Reconstruction era and the Progressive Era. It was named by 1920s historians after Mar ...
, Jacksonville and nearby St. Augustine became popular winter
resorts A resort (North American English) is a self-contained commercial establishment that aims to provide most of a vacationer's needs. This includes food, drink, swimming, accommodation, sports, entertainment and shopping, on the premises. A hotel ...
for the rich and famous. Visitors arrived by
steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...
and later by railroad. President
Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...
attended the Sub-Tropical Exposition in the city on February 22, 1888, during his trip to Florida. This highlighted the visibility of the state as a worthy place for tourism. The city's tourism, however, was dealt major blows in the late 19th century by yellow fever outbreaks. Extending the
Florida East Coast Railway The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a p ...
further south drew visitors to other areas. From 1893 to 1938, Jacksonville was the site of the Florida Old Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Home; it operated a nearby cemetery.


20th and 21st centuries


1900 to 1939

On May 3, 1901, downtown Jacksonville was ravaged by a fire that started as a kitchen fire. Spanish moss at a nearby mattress factory was quickly engulfed in flames and enabled the fire to spread rapidly. In a mere eight hours, it swept through 146 city blocks, destroyed over 2,000 buildings, left about 10,000 homeless and killed seven residents. The Confederate Monument in Hemming Park was one of the few landmarks to survive the fire. Governor William Sherman Jennings declared
martial law Martial law is the replacement of civilian government by military rule and the suspension of civilian legal processes for military powers. Martial law can continue for a specified amount of time, or indefinitely, and standard civil liberties ...
and sent the state militia to maintain order; on May 17, municipal authority resumed. It is said the glow from the flames could be seen in
Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...
, and the smoke plumes seen in
Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...
. Known as the " Great Fire of 1901", it was one of the worst disasters in Florida history and the largest urban fire in the southeastern United States. Architect Henry John Klutho was a primary figure in the reconstruction of the city. The first multi-story structure built by Klutho was the Dyal-Upchurch Building in 1902. The St. James Building, built on the previous site of the St. James Hotel that burned down, was built in 1912 as Klutho's crowning achievement. In the 1910s, northern film studios headquartered in New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago were attracted to Jacksonville's warm climate, exotic landscapes, excellent rail access, and cheap labor. More than 30
silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...
studios A studio is a space set aside for creative work of any kind, including art, dance, music and theater. The word ''studio'' is derived from the , from , from ''studere'', meaning to Wiktionary:study, study or zeal. Types Art The studio o ...
were established over the decade, earning Jacksonville the title of "Winter Film Capital of the World". However, the emergence of
Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...
as a major film production center ended the city's film industry. One movie studio site,
Norman Studios Norman Studios, also known as Norman Film Manufacturing Company is a former American film studio in Jacksonville, Florida. Founded by Richard Edward Norman, the studio produced silent films featuring African-American casts from 1919 to 1928. The ...
, remains in Arlington; it has been converted to the Jacksonville Silent Film Museum at Norman Studios. During this time, Jacksonville also became a banking and insurance center, with companies such as Barnett Bank, Atlantic National Bank, Florida National Bank, Prudential, Gulf Life, Afro-American Insurance, Independent Life and American Heritage Life thriving in the business district. The Walker Business College was opened in Jacksonville and advertised that it was the largest African American business school in the United States.


1940 to 1979

During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, The U.S. Navy became a major employer and economic force, constructing three Navy bases in the city, while the U.S. Marine Corps established Blount Island Command. Jacksonville, like most large cities in the United States, suffered from many negative effects of rapid
urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city". Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted ...
after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The construction of federal highways essentially subsidized development of suburban housing, and wealthier, better established residents moved to newer housing in the suburbs. After World War II, the government of the city of Jacksonville began to increase spending to fund new public building projects in the postwar economic boom. Mayor W. Haydon Burns' ''Jacksonville Story'' resulted in the construction of a new city hall, civic auditorium, public library and other projects that created a sense of civic pride. Development of suburbs led to a growing middle class who lived outside the urban core. An increasing proportion of residents in Jacksonville's urban core had a higher than average rate of poverty, especially as businesses and jobs also migrated to the suburbs. Given the postwar migration of residents, businesses, and jobs, the city's tax base declined. It had difficulty funding education, sanitation, and traffic control within the city limits. In addition, residents in unincorporated suburbs had difficulty obtaining municipal services, such as sewage and building code enforcement. In 1958, a study recommended the city of Jacksonville begin annexing outlying communities to create the needed larger geographic tax base to improve services throughout the county. Voters outside the city limits rejected annexation plans in six referendums between 1960 and 1965. On August 27, 1960, a white mob attacked civil rights demonstrators in Hemming Park with clubs. The police largely stood by. In 1962, a federal court ordered the city to prepare a plan for integration of public schools, in accordance with the ruling of the Supreme Court in ''
Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...
'' (1954). A study found schools were in poor condition and poorly equipped. On December 29, 1963, the Hotel Roosevelt fire killed 22 people, the highest one-day death toll in Jacksonville. On September 10, 1964, Hurricane Dora made landfall near St. Augustine, causing major damage to buildings in North Florida. Hurricane Dora was the first recorded hurricane to make a direct hit to North Florida. In the mid-1960s, corruption scandals arose among city and some county officials, who were mainly part of a traditional white Democratic network that had dominated politics for the decades since the disenfranchisement of most African Americans at the turn of the 20th century which effectively hollowed out the Republican Party. After a
grand jury A grand jury is a jury empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a person to testify. A grand ju ...
was convened to investigate, 11 officials were indicted and more were forced to resign. In 1963 the
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is a regional educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. As of 2022, the organization oversees ap ...
threatened to withdraw accreditation of area schools in a year because of "instructional deficiencies". But voters refused to approve new taxes to improve school conditions. In late 1963, Duval County was spending $299 per student compared to the state average spending of $372 per student. In 1964 all 15 of Duval County's public high schools lost their accreditation. This added momentum to proposals for government reform. Jacksonville Consolidation, led by J. J. Daniel and Claude Yates, began to win more support during this period, from both inner-city blacks, who wanted more involvement in government after passage of the
Voting Rights Act of 1965 The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a landmark piece of federal legislation in the United States that prohibits racial discrimination in voting. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson during the height of the civil rights move ...
, that provided federal oversight and enforcement of their right to vote, and whites in the suburbs, who wanted more services and more control over the central city. Lower taxes, increased economic development, unification of the community, better public spending, and effective administration by a more central authority were all cited as reasons for a new consolidated government. When a consolidation referendum was held in 1967, 65% of voters approved the plan. On October 1, 1968, the city and county governments merged to create the Consolidated City of Jacksonville. Fire, police, health & welfare, recreation, public works, and housing & urban development were all combined under the new government. In honor of the occasion, then-Mayor Hans Tanzler posed with actress Lee Meredith behind a sign marking the new border of the "Bold New City of the
South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
" at Florida 13 and Julington Creek. The consolidation created a 900-square-mile entity.


1980 to present

Tommy Hazouri supported passage of environmental regulations and reduced pollution odor during his single term as mayor, which began in 1987. Ed Austin was elected as mayor in 1991. His most lasting contribution is the River City Renaissance program, a $235 million bond issued in 1993 by the city of Jacksonville which funded
urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...
and revamped the city's historic downtown neighborhoods. Austin oversaw the city's purchase and refurbishing of the St. James Building, which is now used as Jacksonville's
city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...
. He was mayor in 1993 when Jacksonville was awarded its
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
franchise, the
Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team ...
.Patton, Charlie
"Former Mayor Ed Austin remembered for 'uncanny moral compass'
Florida Times-Union, April 28, 2011
They are the only major sports franchise in the city, making Jacksonville one of only two markets (the other one being Green Bay), and the only major city, to have a single sports franchise, and for that franchise to be an NFL team. The Better Jacksonville Plan, promoted as a "blueprint for Jacksonville's future" and approved by Jacksonville voters in 2000, authorized a half-penny sales tax. This generated most of the revenue required for the $2.25 billion package of major projects, which have included road and infrastructure improvements, environmental preservation, targeted economic development, and new or improved public facilities. In 2005, Jacksonville hosted
Super Bowl XXXIX Super Bowl XXXIX was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles to decide the National Football League (NF ...
, which was seen by an estimated 86 million viewers. The first notable retail cryptocurrency transaction involving physical goods was paid on May 22, 2010, by exchanging 10,000 bitcoins for two pizzas delivered from a Papa John's in Jacksonville, Florida. Laszlo Hanyecz, who lives in Jacksonville, created a thread on an online forum offering the bitcoins to anyone who would order him two pizzas. Jeremy Sturdivant, a user from England, accepted the offer and had the pizzas sent to Hayecz's home. The 10,000 Bitcoins were worth about US$40 at the time. A plaque was mounted on the wall of the restaurant commemorating the day, with the declaration that Jacksonville is the "Home of the first Bitcoin purchase." This event marks May 22 as "Bitcoin Pizza Day" for crypto-fans. The city has suffered damage in natural disasters. In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew caused major flooding and damage to Jacksonville, Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach, the first such damage in the area since 2004. In September 2017,
Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Hurricane Maria, Maria two weeks later. At the time, it was considered ...
caused record-breaking floods in Jacksonville, with a severity not seen since 1846. As has been typical of other metropolitan areas across the country, suburban growth has continued around Jacksonville, where large areas of land were available for development, drawing more residents, businesses and jobs from the city. This has resulted in further demographic changes. The city's largest ethnic group, non-Hispanic white, declined from 75.8% of the population in 1970 to 55.1% by 2010.


Geography


Cityscape


Topography

According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the city has a total area of , making Jacksonville the largest city in land area in the
contiguous United States The contiguous United States, also known as the U.S. mainland, officially referred to as the conterminous United States, consists of the 48 adjoining U.S. states and the District of Columbia of the United States in central North America. The te ...
; of this, 86.66% () is land and 13.34% () is water. Jacksonville completely surrounds the town of Baldwin. Nassau County lies to the north, Baker County lies to the west, and
Clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
and St. Johns counties lie to the south. Jacksonville has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean with the Jacksonville Beaches. The city developed along both sides of the
St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...
. The Trout River, a major tributary of the St. Johns River, is entirely within Jacksonville. Soil composition is primarily sand and clay rather than limestone, so few
sinkhole A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are also known as shakeholes, and to openings where surface water ...
s develop; however, deep, large diameter sinkholes do occur.


Architecture

The architecture of Jacksonville varies in style. Few structures in the city center predate the Great Fire of 1901. The city is home to one of the largest collections of
Prairie School Prairie School is a late 19th and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped i ...
style buildings outside the Midwest. Following the Great Fire of 1901, Henry John Klutho came to influence generations of local designers with his works by both the Chicago School, championed by
Louis Sullivan Louis Henry Sullivan (September 3, 1856 – April 14, 1924) was an American architect, and has been called a "father of skyscrapers" and "father of modernism". He was an influential architect of the Chicago school (architecture), Chicago ...
, and the
Prairie School Prairie School is a late 19th and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad overhanging eaves, windows grouped i ...
of architecture, popularized by
Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...
. Jacksonville is also home to a notable collection of
Mid-Century modern Mid-century modern (MCM) is a movement in interior design, product design, graphic design, architecture and urban development that was present in all the world, but more popular in North America, Brazil and Europe from roughly 1945 to 197 ...
architecture. Local architects Robert C. Broward, Taylor Hardwick, and William Morgan adapted a range of design principles, including
International style The International Style is a major architectural style and movement that began in western Europe in the 1920s and dominated modern architecture until the 1970s. It is defined by strict adherence to Functionalism (architecture), functional and Fo ...
, Brutalism, Futurism and Organicism, all applied with an American interpretation generally referred to today as Mid-century modern design. The architecture firms of Reynolds, Smith & Hills (RS&H) and Kemp, Bunch & Jackson (KBJ) have also contributed a number of important works to the city's modern architectural movement. Jacksonville's early predominant position as a regional center of business left an indelible mark on the city's skyline. Many of the earliest skyscrapers in the state were constructed in Jacksonville, dating to 1902. The city last held the state height record from 1974 to 1981. The tallest building in Downtown Jacksonville's
skyline A skyline is the wikt:outline, outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city's overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural area, rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the ...
is the Bank of America Tower, constructed in 1990 as the Barnett Center. It has a height of and includes 42 floors. Other notable structures include the 37-story 1 Independent Square (with its distinctive flared base making it the defining building in the Jacksonville skyline), originally built in 1972–1974 by the Independent Life and Accident Insurance Company, and the 28-floor Riverplace Tower. When this tower was completed in 1967, it was the tallest precast, post-tensioned concrete structure in the world. File:Jacksonville FL Marble Bank and Bisbee Bldg01.jpg, Laura Street Trio (1902–1912) File:CarlingHotelJacksonville-2010-07-b.JPG, The Carling (1925) File:11eforsyth.JPG, 11 East Forsyth (1926) File:OnePrudentialPlazaJacksonville-2010-07a.JPG, Eight Forty One (1955) File:Riverplace Tower, Jacksonville, FL, US.jpg, Riverplace Tower (1967) File:WellsFargoJaxFL.JPG, 1 Independent Square (1974) File:EverBank Center 2.JPG, TIAA Bank Center (1983) File:Bofatower.jpg, Bank of America Tower (1990)


Neighborhoods

There are more than 500 neighborhoods within Jacksonville's vast area. These include Downtown Jacksonville and its surrounding neighborhoods, including LaVilla,
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
, Riverside and Avondale, Springfield, Eastside,
Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
, and
San Marco San Marco is one of the six sestiere (Venice), sestieri of Venice, lying in the heart of the city as the main place of Venice. San Marco also includes the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Although the district includes Piazza San Marco, Saint Mar ...
. Additionally, greater Jacksonville is traditionally divided into several amorphous areas, comprising large parts of Duval County. These are Northside, Westside, Southside, and Arlington, as well as the Jacksonville Beaches.McEwen, John W. 2007. "The Vernacular Neighborhoods of Jacksonville, Florida: Can GIS Help Determine their Boundaries?" ''The Florida Geographer'', Vol. 38: 54–71. Four municipalities have retained their own governments since consolidation; these are Baldwin and the three Jacksonville Beaches towns of Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and Jacksonville Beach. Four of Jacksonville's neighborhoods, Avondale, Ortega, Springfield, and Riverside, have been identified as U.S.
historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...
s and are in the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. File:Jax FL Terminal POC04.jpg, LaVilla File:FidelityNational2Jacksonville-Jul2009.JPG,
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
File:Lauraforsyth.JPG, Northbank File:JaxFLSouthbank2014.jpg, Southbank File:Sphdqa.JPG, Springfield File:Jacksonville San Marco Square.JPG,
San Marco San Marco is one of the six sestiere (Venice), sestieri of Venice, lying in the heart of the city as the main place of Venice. San Marco also includes the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Although the district includes Piazza San Marco, Saint Mar ...
File:StJohnsTCJax.jpg, Southside File:Public_School_No_13_-_3.jpg, Northside File:The Mathews Bridge1.jpg, Eastside and Arlington File:Jax FL Old Ortega HD01.jpg, Ortega File:Jax FL Avondale HD01.jpg, Riverside and Avondale File:Northshorehomejax.jpg, Tallulah-North Shore


Climate

According to the
Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...
, Jacksonville has a
humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...
(Cfa), with hot humid summers, and warm to mild and drier winters. Seasonal rainfall is concentrated in the warmest months from May through September, when brief but intense downpours with thunder and lightning are common, while the driest months are from November through April. Rainfall averages around a year. Normal monthly mean temperatures range from in January to in July; high temperatures average throughout the year. The city of Jacksonville usually averages only about 10 to 15 nights at or below freezing. Such cold weather is usually short-lived. The coldest temperature recorded at Jacksonville International Airport was on January 21, 1985. Jacksonville has recorded four days with measurable snow since 1911, most recently a one-inch (2.5 cm) snowfall in December 1989, flurries in December 2010, and 1/10 of an inch (0.25 cm) of snow in January, 2025. Jacksonville has only received one direct hit from a hurricane since 1871. The rarity of direct strikes is attributed to chance. However, the city has experienced hurricane or near-hurricane conditions more than a dozen times due to storms crossing the state from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, or passing to the north or south in the Atlantic and brushing past the area. The strongest effect on Jacksonville was from Hurricane Dora in 1964, the only recorded storm to hit the First Coast with sustained hurricane-force winds. The eye crossed St. Augustine with winds that had just barely diminished to , making it a strong Category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. In 1979, Hurricane David passed offshore by , bringing winds around .
Hurricane Floyd Hurricane Floyd was a very powerful and large tropical cyclone which struck the Bahamas and the East Coast of the United States. It was the sixth list of named tropical cyclones, named storm, fourth hurricane, and third major hurricane in the 1 ...
in 1999 caused damage mainly to Jacksonville Beach; the Jacksonville Beach pier was severely damaged and later demolished. In 2004, Jacksonville was inundated by Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Jeanne, which made landfall south of the area, and suffered minor damage from Tropical Storm Bonnie, which spawned a minor tornado. Jacksonville also suffered damage from 2008's Tropical Storm Fay, which crisscrossed the state, bringing parts of Jacksonville under darkness for four days. Fay damaged, but did not destroy, the Jacksonville Beach pier that was rebuilt after Floyd. On May 28, 2012, Jacksonville was hit by Tropical Storm Beryl, packing winds up to , which made landfall near Jacksonville Beach. Hurricane Matthew passed to the east with winds of 110 miles per hour. It caused storm surge, extensive flooding of the Atlantic Ocean and St. Johns River, and wind damage; the storm knocked out power for 250,000 people. In 2017,
Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Hurricane Maria, Maria two weeks later. At the time, it was considered ...
passed to the west with winds. It caused severe storm surge and flooding, passing the flood record of Hurricane Dora in 1964.


Parks

The City of Jacksonville has a unique park system, with various lands operated by the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...
, Florida State Parks and the City of Jacksonville Department of Parks and Recreation. Jacksonville operates the largest urban park system in the United States, providing facilities and services at more than 337 locations on more than throughout the city. A number of parks provide access for people to boat, swim, fish, sail, jetski, surf and waterski.


National parks

The Timucuan Preserve is a U.S. National Preserve comprising over of
wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...
s and waterways. It includes natural and historic areas such as the Fort Caroline National Memorial and the Kingsley Plantation, the oldest standing plantation in the state.


State parks

There are several state parks within the city limits of Jacksonville, these include Amelia Island State Park, Big Talbot Island State Park, Fort George Island Cultural State Park, George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier State Park, Little Talbot Island State Park, Pumpkin Hill Creek Preserve State Park and Yellow Bluff Fort Historic State Park.


City parks

* Springfield Park is a public park on the southern bounds of the historic neighborhood of Springfield (for which it is named), and is part of a network of parks that parallel Hogans Creek. The park opened in 1907 as Dignan Park, named for a former chairman of the city's Board of Public Works. In 1914, the park hosted the annual reunion of the United Confederate Veterans, a gathering of former Confederate soldiers. Five months after the reunion, the city renamed the park "Confederate Park". A Confederate monument was erected in 1915 honoring the Women of the Southland. On August 11, 2020, the
city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough counc ...
voted to change the name of the park to "Springfield Park". * Friendship Fountain is a large
fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were o ...
in St. Johns River Park at the west end of Downtown Jacksonville's Southbank Riverwalk. It opened in 1965 as the world's largest and tallest fountain, and has been one of Jacksonville's most recognizable and popular attractions. The fountain's three pumps could push of water per minute up to in height. It was designed by Jacksonville architect Taylor Hardwick in 1963 and in 2011, the city completed a $3.2 million renovation to the fountain and the surrounding park. It features a light show and music each evening. * Hanna Park is a public beach and city park near Mayport in the Jacksonville Beaches area. It consists of of mature
coast A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...
al
hammock A hammock, from Spanish , borrowed from Taíno language, Taíno and Arawak language, Arawak , is a sling made of fabric, rope, or netting, suspended between two or more points, used for swing (seat), swinging, sleeping, or Human relaxation, res ...
, and was known as Manhattan Beach, Florida's first beach community for African Americans during the period of
segregation in the United States Facilities and services such as housing, healthcare, education, employment, and transportation have been systematically separated in the United States based on racial categorizations. Notably, racial segregation in the United States The ...
. Hannah Park also has a campground with both RV and tent sites. * James Weldon Johnson Park is a public park in the heart of the government center in downtown. Originally a
village green A village green is a commons, common open area within a village or other settlement. Historically, a village green was common pasture, grassland with a pond for watering cattle and other stock, often at the edge of a rural settlement, used for ...
, it was the first park and remains the oldest park in the city. The area was established as a public square in 1857 by Isaiah Hart, founder of Jacksonville. Formerly Hemming Park, it was renamed in 2020 for writer and civil rights activist
James Weldon Johnson James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ...
. The first Wednesday of every month, the park is converted into the centerpiece of Jacksonville's Downtown Art Walk. The third Thursday of every month, the park hosts a night market called Jaxsons Night Market. * Klutho Park is an public park, between downtown and the historic neighborhood of Springfield. It is part of a network of parks that parallel Hogans Creek, Klutho Park being the largest, and was created between 1899 and 1901 on land donated by the Springfield Company. The park also housed the city's first zoo, opening at the park in 1914. The Hogans Creek Improvement Project of 1929–1930, designed by architect Henry J. Klutho, turned much of the park grounds into a Venetian-style promenade. * Jacksonville-Baldwin Rail Trail is a
Rail Trail A rail trail or railway walk is a shared-use path on a Right of way#Rail right of way, railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed but may also share the rail corr ...
that extends northwest to Baldwin. It includes three separate paths; a multi-use asphalt trail for hiking, jogging, in-line skating or cycling; an off-road bike trail; and a horseback riding trail. * Jessie Ball DuPont Park is a park, home to Treaty Oak, a massive 250-year-old tree in the Southbank. * Metropolitan Park is a waterfront park on the
St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...
, in the Sports Complex area of downtown. The multi-purpose facility contains an exhibition area, picnic and playground area, and a performance pavilion which has a capacity of 10,000 persons. * Memorial Park is a public park, on the
St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...
in the historic neighborhood Riverside. Completed in 1924, it is the third oldest park in the city. Built to honor the 1,200 Floridians who died serving during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the notable
Olmsted Brothers The Olmsted Brothers company was a Landscape architecture, landscape architectural firm in the United States, established in 1898 by brothers John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. (1870–1957), sons of the landscape ar ...
were commissioned to design the park, along with local architect Roy A. Benjamin. Charles Adrian Pillars designed the bronze sculpture, 'Life', prominently showcased in the park. * Riverside Park is an public park, in the historic neighborhood of Riverside. It is the second oldest park in the city. * Riverwalk along the St. Johns from Berkman Plaza to I-95 at the Fuller Warren Bridge and Riverfront Plaza while the Southbank Riverwalk stretches from the Radisson Hotel to Museum Circle. Adjacent to Museum Circle is St. Johns River Park, also known as Friendship Park. It is the location of Friendship Fountain, one of the most recognizable and popular attractions in Jacksonville. This landmark was built in 1965 and promoted as the "World's Tallest and Largest" fountain at the time. * Veterans Memorial Wall is a tribute to local servicemen and women killed while serving in the U.S. armed forces. A ceremony is held each Memorial Day, recognizing any service woman or man from Jacksonville who died in the previous year.


Other

* Evergreen Cemetery is a large historic cemetery added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
on April 8, 2011. * Jacksonville Arboretum & Gardens broke ground on a new center in April 2007 and held their grand opening on November 15, 2008. * Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens * Jacksonville National Cemetery * Old City Cemetery * Tree Hill Nature Center is a nature preserve and environmental education center five minutes from Downtown Jacksonville.


Demographics

Although incorporated in 1832, Jacksonville did not appear in the U.S. Census for the first time until 1850, when it recorded a population of only 1,045.


2010 and 2020 census

In the 2020 United States census, there were 949,611 people, 348,809 households, and 213,174 families living in Jacksonville. In the 2010 United States census, there were 821,784 people, 311,064 households, and 197,888 families living in Jacksonville. In 2020, Jacksonville was the most populous city in Florida and the eleventh most populous city in the United States. In 2010, those of Hispanic or Latino ancestry accounted for 7.7% of Jacksonville's population. Of these, 2.6% identified as Puerto Rican, 1.7% as Mexican, and 0.9% as Cuban. In 2010, those of African ancestry accounted for 30.7% of Jacksonville's population, which includes African Americans. Out of the 30.7%, 1.8% identified as
Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lie south of the Sahara. These include Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the list of sovereign states and ...
n, 1.4% as
West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). According to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED''), the term ''West Indian'' in 1597 described the indigenous inhabitants of the West In ...
or Afro-Caribbean American (0.5% Haitian, 0.4% Jamaican, 0.1% Other or Unspecified West Indian, 0.1% Bahamian, 0.1% Barbadian), and 0.6% as Black Hispanics. In 2010, those of non-Hispanic white European ancestry accounted for 55.1% of Jacksonville's population. Of these, 10.4% identified as ethnic German, 10.2% as Irish, 8.8% as English, 3.9% as Italian, 2.2% as French, 2.0% as Scottish, 2.0% as Scotch-Irish, 1.7% Polish, 1.1% Dutch, 0.6% Russian, 0.5% Norwegian, 0.5% Swedish, 0.5% Welsh, and 0.5% as
French Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French people, French colonists first arriving in Canada (New France), France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of ...
. In 2010, those of Asian ancestry accounted for 4.3% of Jacksonville's population. Out of the 4.3%, 1.8% were Filipino, 0.9% were Indian, 0.6%
Other Asian Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * The Other (1913 film), ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * The Ot ...
, 0.5% Vietnamese, 0.3% Chinese, 0.2% Korean, and 0.1% were Japanese. In 2010, 6.7% of the population identified as of American ancestry, regardless of race or ethnicity. In 2010, 0.9% were of
Arab Arabs (,  , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
ancestry. , there were 311,064 households, out of which 11.8% were vacant. 23.9% of households had children under the age of 18 living with them, 43.8% were married couples, 15.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.4% were non-families. 29.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 7.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the average family size was 3.21. 23.9% of the population were aged under 18, 10.5% were aged from 18 to 24, 28.5% from 25 to 44, 26.2% from 45 to 64, and 10.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35.5 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.3 males. In 2010, the median income for a household in the county was $48,829, and the median income for a family was $59,272. Males had a median income of $42,485 versus $34,209 for females. The per capita income for the county was $25,227. About 10.5% of families and 14.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 20.4% of those under age 18 and 9.9% of those aged 65 or over. In 2010, 9.2% of the county's population was foreign born, with 49.6% being naturalized American citizens. Of foreign born residents, 38.0% were born in Latin America, 35.7% born in Asia, 17.9% were born in Europe, 5.9% born in Africa, 1.9% in North America, and 0.5% were born in Oceania. In 2010, 87.1% of Jacksonville's population age five and over spoke only English at home. 5.8% of the population spoke Spanish at home. About 3.3% spoke other
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...
at home. About 2.9% spoke Asian languages or Pacific Islander languages/
Oceanic languages The approximately 450 Oceanic languages are a branch of the Austronesian languages. The area occupied by speakers of these languages includes Polynesia, as well as much of Melanesia and Micronesia. Though covering a vast area, Oceanic languages ...
at home. The remaining 0.9% of the population spoke other languages at home. In total, 12.9% spoke another language other than English.


2000 census

In 2000, speakers of English as a
first language A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period hypothesis, critical period. In some countries, the term ''native language'' ...
accounted for 90.60% of all residents. Those who spoke Spanish made up 4.13%, Tagalog 1.00%, French 0.47%,
Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
0.44%, German 0.43%, Vietnamese 0.31%, Russian 0.21% and Italian 0.17% of the population.


Ethnicities

Jacksonville has the largest Albanian American community in Florida, with 3,812 Albanians who lived within it, or 24.93% of all Albanian Americans in Florida. Nationally the city has the 3rd most Albanian Americans, behind
Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
and
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
. As of 2010, Jacksonville had Florida's largest
Filipino American Filipino Americans () are Americans of Filipino ancestry. Filipinos in North America were first documented in the 16th century and other small settlements beginning in the 18th century. Mass migration did not begin until after the end of the Sp ...
community, with 25,033 in the metropolitan area in the 2010 Census. Much of Jacksonville's Filipino community served in or has ties to the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
. In 2000, Jacksonville had the country's tenth-largest
Arab American Arab Americans ( or ) are Americans who trace ancestry to any of the various waves of immigrants from the Arabic-speaking countries. In the United States census, Arabs are racially classified as White Americans which is defined as "A person ha ...
population, with a population of 5,751 in the 2000 United States Census.


Religion

Jacksonville has a diverse religious population. The largest religious group is
Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
. According to the
Association of Religion Data Archives The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) is a free source of online information related to American and international religion. One of the primary goals of the archive is to democratize access to academic information on religion by making t ...
(ARDA), in 2010 the Jacksonville metropolitan area had an estimated 365,267
Evangelical Protestant Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of the Christian ...
s, 76,100 Mainline Protestants, and 56,769 Black Protestants, though figures for the latter were incomplete. There were around 1,200 Protestant congregations in various denominations. Notable Protestant churches include Bethel Baptist Institutional Church and First Baptist Church, whose congregations separated after the Civil War and which are the city's oldest Baptist churches. Each has become very large. The Episcopal Diocese of Florida has its see at St. John's Cathedral; the current building was completed in 1906. Jacksonville is part of the
Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
Diocese of St. Augustine, which covers seventeen counties in North Florida. ARDA estimated 133,155 Catholics attending 25 parishes in the Jacksonville metropolitan area in 2010. The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Jacksonville, defined as a
minor basilica Basilicas are Catholic church buildings that have a designation, conferring special privileges, given by the Pope. Basilicas are distinguished for ceremonial purposes from other churches. The building need not be a basilica in the architectura ...
in 2013, was added to the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
in 1992. There are also two
Eastern Catholic The Eastern Catholic Churches or Oriental Catholic Churches, also known as the Eastern-Rite Catholic Churches, Eastern Rite Catholicism, or simply the Eastern Churches, are 23 Eastern Christian autonomous ('' sui iuris'') particular churches of ...
parishes, one of the
Syriac Catholic Church The Syriac Catholic Church is an Eastern Catholic '' sui iuris'' (self-governing) particular church that is in full communion with the Holy See and with the entirety of the Catholic Church. Originating in the Levant, it uses the West Syriac ...
and one of the
Maronite Church The Maronite Church (; ) is an Eastern Catholic '' sui iuris'' particular church in full communion with the pope and the worldwide Catholic Church, with self-governance under the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. The head of the Maronit ...
. In 2010 there were 2,520
Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...
Christians, representing four churches in the Eastern Orthodox communion, as well as congregations of
Syriac Orthodox The Syriac Orthodox Church (), also informally known as the Jacobite Church, is an Oriental Orthodox denomination that originates from the Church of Antioch. The church currently has around 4-5 million followers. The church upholds the Mia ...
, Armenian Apostolic, Ethiopian Orthodox, and
Coptic Orthodox The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Churches, Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the Apostolic see, See of Alexandria i ...
Christians. ARDA estimated 14,886 members of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...
(LDS Church) and 511 Unitarian Universalists in 2010. There were an estimated 8,581
Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
attending seven mosques, the largest being the Islamic Center of Northeast Florida. The Jewish community, which numbered 6,028 in 2010, is largely centered in the neighborhood of
Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...
. There are five Orthodox, two
Reform Reform refers to the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The modern usage of the word emerged in the late 18th century and is believed to have originated from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement, which ...
, two
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
, and one Reconstructionist synagogues. The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute teaches courses for the community. ARDA estimated 4,595
Hindus Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
, 3,530
Buddhists Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE. It is the world's fourth ...
and 650 Baháʼís in the Jacksonville area in 2010.


Economy

Jacksonville's location on the
St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...
and the Atlantic Ocean proved instrumental to the growth of the city and its industry. Jacksonville has a sizable deepwater port, which helps make it a leading port in the U.S. for
automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
imports, as well as the leading transportation and distribution hub in the state. The strength of the city's economy lies in its broad diversification. While the area once had many thriving dairies, such as Gustafson's Farm and Skinner Dairy, this aspect of the economy has declined over time. The area's economy is balanced among distribution,
financial services Financial services are service (economics), economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of tertiary sector of the economy, service sector activities, especially as concerns finan ...
, biomedical technology,
consumer goods A final good or consumer good is a final product ready for sale that is used by the consumer to satisfy current wants or needs, unlike an intermediate good, which is used to produce other goods. A microwave oven or a bicycle is a final good. W ...
, information services, manufacturing, insurance, and other industries. Jacksonville is home to the headquarters of four
Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune (magazine), Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States Joint-stock company#Closely held corporations and publicly traded corporations, corporations by ...
companies:
CSX Corporation CSX Corporation is an American holding company focused on rail transportation and real estate in North America, among other industries. The company was established in 1980 as part of the Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries merge ...
, Fidelity National Financial, Fidelity National Information Services and Southeastern Grocers. Interline Brands is based in Jacksonville and is owned by
The Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., often referred to as Home Depot, is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportat ...
. Other notable companies based in Jacksonville or with a large presence include Florida Blue, Swisher International Group, BOA Merrill Lynch, Fanatics, Crowley Maritime, Web.com, Firehouse Subs and
Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...
. Naval Air Station Jacksonville, SW of downtown, employs more than 25,000 people.


Tourism

In 2008, Jacksonville had 2.8 million visitors who stayed overnight, spending nearly $1 billion. A study by Research Data Services of Tampa quantified the importance of tourism. The total economic impact was $1.6 billion and supported nearly 43,000 jobs, 10% of the local workforce. ''Visit Jacksonville'' is the official marketing organization for tourism in Duval County. Their report on FY2024 showed that the city had more than 8 million visitors who spent in excess of $4 billion. A majority visited relatives and/or friends, and 4 out of 5 expected to return. Just under half paid for their accommodations with a significant percentage coming from Florida, including Orlando and Tampa, or Atlanta and New York. Visitor spending had almost a $7.4 billion impact on the economy of Jacksonville, supporting approximately 57,000 area jobs and $2.8 billion in wages. The visitor's contribution to local taxes saved every Jacksonville household about $540 from their tax bill. Officials expect that new attractions, such as the $1.4 billion "Stadium of the Future" will increase those numbers.


Banking and financial services

Jacksonville has long had a regional legacy in banking and finance. Locally headquartered Atlantic National Bank, Florida National Bank and Barnett Bank dominated the industry in Florida from the turn of the 20th century through the 1980s, before all being acquired in a national wave of mergers and acquisitions throughout the entire financial sector. Acquired by NationsBank in 1997, Barnett Bank was the last of these banks to succumb to acquisition, and at the time was the largest banking merger in U.S. history. The city still holds distinction nationally and internationally, boasting two Fortune 500 financial services companies, Fidelity National Financial and FIS, FIS being well recognized as a global leader in
financial technology Financial technology (abbreviated as fintech) refers to the application of innovative technologies to products and services in the financial industry. This broad term encompasses a wide array of technological advancements in financial services, ...
. Headquartered on the banks of the St. Johns River in Downtown Jacksonville, EverBank holds the title of largest bank in the state by deposits. The city is home to other notable financial services institutions including Ameris Bancorp, Atlantic Coast Financial, Black Knight Financial Services, MedMal Direct Insurance Company, US Assure, Jax Federal Credit Union, and VyStar Credit Union. The city is also home to the Jacksonville Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Jacksonville's
financial sector Financial services are economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of service sector activities, especially as concerns financial management and consumer finance. The financ ...
has benefited from a rapidly changing business culture, as have other Sunbelt cities such as
Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...
,
Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...
, and Charlotte. In a concept known as nearshoring, financial institutions are shifting operations away from high-cost addresses such as
Wall Street Wall Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs eight city blocks between Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway in the west and South Street (Manhattan), South Str ...
, and have shifted some trading functions to Jacksonville. With relatively low-cost real estate, easy access by planes to New York City, high quality of life, and 19,000 financial sector employees, Jacksonville has become an option for relocating staff.
Deutsche Bank Deutsche Bank AG (, ) is a Germany, German multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, and dual-listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange. ...
's growth in the city is an example of such change. Jacksonville is the site of Deutsche Bank's second largest U.S. operation; only New York City is larger. They also are an example of a business that has moved operations to the suburbs. Other institutions with a notable presence in Jacksonville include Macquarie Group,
Bank of America The Bank of America Corporation (Bank of America) (often abbreviated BofA or BoA) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered at the Bank of America Corporate Center in ...
,
Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with a significant global presence. The company operates in 35 countries and serves over 70 million customers worldwide. It is a systemically important fi ...
,
JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. (stylized as JPMorganChase) is an American multinational financial services, finance corporation headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. It is List of largest banks in the United States, the largest ba ...
, Citi, Citizens Property Insurance,
Fidelity Investments Fidelity Investments, formerly known as Fidelity Management & Research (FMR), owned by FMR LLC and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, provides financial services. Established in 1946, the company is one of the largest asset managers in the ...
,
Ally Financial Ally Financial Inc. (known as GMAC until 2010) is an American bank holding company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered at Ally Detroit Center in Detroit, Michigan. The company provides financial services including car finance, online bank ...
and
Aetna Aetna Inc. ( ) is an American managed health care company that sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans, ...
.


Logistics

Jacksonville is a rail, air, and highway focal point and a busy port of entry, with Jacksonville International Airport, ship repair yards and extensive freight-handling facilities.
Lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into uniform and useful sizes (dimensional lumber), including beams and planks or boards. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, window frames). ...
,
phosphate Phosphates are the naturally occurring form of the element phosphorus. In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthop ...
, paper, cigars and
wood pulp Pulp is a fibrous Lignocellulosic biomass, lignocellulosic material prepared by chemically, semi-chemically, or mechanically isolating the cellulose fiber, cellulosic fibers of wood, fiber crops, Paper recycling, waste paper, or cotton paper, rag ...
are the principal exports;
automobiles A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...
and coffee are among imports. The city's manufacturing base provides 4.5% of local jobs, versus 8.5% nationally. According to ''
Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
'' magazine in 2007, Jacksonville ranked third among the top ten U.S. cities as destinations for jobs. Jacksonville was ranked as the tenth-fastest growing city in the U.S. To emphasize the city's transportation business and capabilities, the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce filed ''Jacksonville America's Logistics Center'' as a trademark on November 9, 2007. It was formally registered on August 4, 2009. Cornerstone began promoting the city as "Jacksonville: America's Logistics Center" in 2009. Signs were added to the existing city limit markers on Interstate 95. The Port of Jacksonville, a
seaport A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as Hamburg, Manc ...
on the
St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...
, is a large component of the local economy. Approximately 50,000 jobs in Northeast Florida are related to port activity and the port has an economic impact of $2.7 billion in Northeast Florida: The three maritime shippers who ship to
Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
are all headquartered in Jacksonville: TOTE Maritime, Crowley Maritime, and Trailer Bridge. Cecil Commerce Center is on the site of the former Naval Air Station Cecil Field, which closed in 1999 following the 1993
Base Realignment and Closure Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) was a process by a Federal government of the United States, United States federal government commission to increase the efficiency of the United States Department of Defense by coordinating the realignment and ...
(BRAC) decision. Covering a total area of , it was the largest military base in the Jacksonville area. The parcel contains more than 3% of the total land area in Duval County (). The industrial and commercial-zoned center offers mid to large-size parcels for development; it has excellent transportation and utility infrastructure, including the third-longest runway in Florida.


Media and technology

'' The Florida Times-Union'' is the major daily broadsheet newspaper in the State of Florida, headquartered in Jacksonville. Jacksonville.com is its official website. The '' Jacksonville Daily Record'' is also a daily broadsheet newspaper specialized for the business and legal communities. Weekly papers include the '' Jacksonville Business Journal'', an
American City Business Journals American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes ''The Business Journals'', which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market ...
publication focused on business news, '' Folio Weekly'', the city's chief
alternative weekly An alternative newspaper is a type of newspaper that eschews comprehensive coverage of general news in favor of stylized reporting, opinionated reviews and columns, investigations into edgy topics and magazine-style feature stories highlighting ...
, and '' The Florida Star'' and the '' Jacksonville Free Press'', two weeklies catering to African Americans. ''Jax4Kids'', a monthly newspaper, caters to parents. '' EU Jacksonville'' is a monthly entertainment magazine. ''The Coastal'' is also a local magazine that is only online that also publishes a quarterly paper edition. When it comes to broadcast media, as of 2023, Jacksonville was considered the 47th-largest local television market in the United States. Despite its large population, Jacksonville has always been a small-to-medium-sized market because of population trends towards suburban and once-traditionally rural areas around Duval County, Florida. They are served by television stations affiliated with major American networks including but not limited to:
WTLV WTLV (channel 12) is a television station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, affiliated with NBC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside Orange Park, Florida, Orange Park–licensed American Broadcasting Company, ABC affiliate WJXX (channel ...
12 ( NBC) and its sister station
WJXX WJXX (channel 25) is a television station licensed to Orange Park, Florida, United States, serving the Jacksonville area as an affiliate of American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Tegna Inc. alongside NBC affiliate WTLV (channel 12) ...
25 ( ABC), WJAX-TV 47 ( CBS) and WFOX-TV 30 ( Fox; with
MyNetworkTV MyNetworkTV (stylized as mynetworkTV; unofficially abbreviated MNT or MNTV) is an American commercial broadcast television syndication service and former television network owned by Fox Corporation, operated by its Fox Television Stations ...
/
MeTV MeTV, an acronym for Memorable Entertainment Television, is an American broadcast television network owned by Weigel Broadcasting. Marketed as "The Definitive Destination for Classic TV", the network airs a variety of classic television progra ...
on DT2), which operates WJAX-TV under a joint sales and shared services agreement, WJCT 7 ( PBS), and WCWJ 17 ( CW). WJXT 4, WCWJ's sister station, is a former longtime CBS affiliate that turned independent in 2002. Jacksonville is also considered, after 2017, the 46th-largest local radio market in the U.S. and is also dominated by two of the largest media groups in the United States that also dominates the American radio industry, including the following:
Cox Radio CMG Media Corporation (doing business as Cox Media Group) is an American media conglomerate principally owned by Apollo Global Management in conjunction with Cox Enterprises, which maintains a 29% minority stake in the company. The company p ...
and
iHeartMedia iHeartMedia, Inc., or CC Media Holdings, Inc., is an American mass media corporation headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. It is the holding company of iHeartCommunications, Inc., formerly Clear Channel Communications, Inc., a company founded by ...
. The dominant AM radio station in terms of ratings - or households to use an industry term tuning in, is WOKV 690AM, which is also the flagship station for the Jacksonville Jaguars. In May 2013, WOKV began simulcasting on 104.5 FM as WOKV FM. There are two
radio stations Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio signal, audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a lan ...
currently broadcasting, after 2017, primarily contemporary American (U.S. Based) Pop music, and they are the following: WAPE 95.1 which has somewhat dominated this niche for over 20 years but had competition originally based out of Atlanta, Georgia and Los Angeles, California linked to Ryan Seacrest. And more recently has been challenged to a certain extent by
WKSL WKSL (97.9 FM broadcasting, FM) is a commercial radio station city of license, licensed to Neptune Beach, Florida, and serving the Jacksonville metropolitan area. The station is owned and operated by iHeartMedia, Inc. WKSL airs a contemporary h ...
97.9 FM (KISS FM). For other popular genres of music, this would be WJBT 93.3 (The Beat) which is a mostly gangster-oriented
Hip-Hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...
/ R&B station and 96.9 The Eagle WJGL which is mostly a Classical or Hard Rock station, while its HD subchannel WJGL-HD2 operates an Urban CHR format under the moniker Power 106.1. WPLA 107.3 is its competitor specializing in Contemporary Rock music under the moniker "107.3 Planet Radio." And moreover, WEZI 102.9 is considered another competitor that specializes in Alternative R&B or Adult Contemporary that is often branded as "Easy 102.9" along with 96.1 WEJZ branded as "96.1 WEJZ", WHJX "Hot 106.5" specializing in urban adult contemporary, and WQIK 99.1 simply specializing in traditional
country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...
or Americana as well as WGNE-FM 99.9, and WJCT 89.9 lastly being the local
National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
affiliate. Moreover, a Christian Contemporary alternative would be WJKV 90.9 FM that is also an Educational Media Foundation K-LOVE outlet.


Military and defense

Jacksonville is home to three U.S. naval facilities. Together with the nearby Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, Jacksonville is the third-largest naval complex in the country. Only
Norfolk, Virginia Norfolk ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. It had a population of 238,005 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of cities in Virginia, third-most populous city ...
and San Diego, California are bigger. The United States military is the largest employer in Jacksonville and its total economic impact is approximately $6.1 billion annually. Several veterans' service organizations are also headquartered in Jacksonville, including Wounded Warrior Project. Naval Air Station Jacksonville is a military airport south of the central business district. Approximately 23,000 civilian and active-duty personnel are employed on the base. There are 35 operational units/squadrons assigned there. Support facilities include an airfield for pilot training, and a maintenance depot capable of tasks ranging from changing a tire to intricate micro-electronics, or total engine disassembly. Also on-site is a Naval Hospital, a Fleet Industrial Supply Center, a Navy Family Service Center, and recreational facilities. Naval Station Mayport is a Navy Ship Base that is the third-largest fleet concentration area in the U.S. Mayport has a busy harbor capable of accommodating 34 ships, and an runway capable of handling any aircraft used by the Department of Defense. Until 2007, it was home to the
aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and hangar facilities for supporting, arming, deploying and recovering carrier-based aircraft, shipborne aircraft. Typically it is the ...
, which locals called "Big John". In January 2009, the Navy committed to stationing a nuclear-powered carrier at Mayport when the official ''Record of Decision'' was signed. The port will require approximately $500 million in facility enhancements to support the larger vessel, which took several years to complete. The carrier was projected to arrive in 2019; however, an amphibious group was sent before the carrier.
Blount Island Command Blount Island Command is a Marine Corps support facility located in Jacksonville, Florida. History In 1977, President Carter, President Jimmy Carter signed the directive that created the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force. By 1980, the Marine ...
is a Marine Corps Logistics Base whose mission is to support the Maritime Prepositioning Force (MPF). This provides for rapid deployment of personnel to link up with pre-positioned equipment and supplies embarked aboard forward-deployed Maritime Prepositioning Ships (MPS). , a
nuclear-powered Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
, is a U.S. Navy ship named for the city. The ship's nickname is ''The Bold One'' and
Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...
is her home port. The Florida Air National Guard is based at Jacksonville International Airport. Coast Guard Sector Jacksonville is on the St. Johns River next to Naval Station Mayport. Sector Jacksonville controls operations from Kings Bay, Georgia, south to
Cape Canaveral Cape Canaveral () is a cape (geography), cape in Brevard County, Florida, in the United States, near the center of the state's Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. Officially Cape Kennedy from 1963 to 1973, it lies east of Merritt Island, separated ...
. CGC ''Kingfisher'', CGC ''Maria Bray'', and CGC ''Hammer'' are stationed at the Sector. Station Mayport is co-located with Sector Jacksonville and includes response boats, and motor lifeboats.


Culture


Leisure and entertainment

Throughout the year, many annual events of various types are held in Jacksonville. In sports, the annual
Gate River Run The Gate River Run (GRR), formerly known as the Jacksonville River Run, is an annual road running event in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, that attracts both competitive and recreational runners. It has functioned as the US National Champi ...
has been held annually since March 1977. It has been the U.S. National road race Championship since 1994 and is the largest race of its distance in the country with over 13,000 runners, spectators, and volunteers, making it Jacksonville's largest participation sporting event. In college football, the Gator Bowl is held on or around New Year's Day each year. It has been continuously held since 1946. Also, the Florida–Georgia game (also known as the "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party"), the annual
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
game between the rival Florida Gators and
Georgia Bulldogs The Georgia Bulldogs are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The offic ...
has been held in Jacksonville almost yearly since 1933. For six days in July the Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament is held for fishermen of all skills. With $500,000 of prizes up for grabs, up to 1000 boats participate with almost 30,000 spectators watching. Jacksonville is also home of River City Pride which is Northeast Florida's largest Gay Pride parade. The parade and festivities usually take place over the course of the weekend, usually the first or second weekend in October in Jacksonville's Riverside neighborhood. The first pride parade was held in 1978. A number of cultural events are also held in Jacksonville. The Jacksonville Jazz Festival, held downtown, is the second largest
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
festival in the nation, while '' Springing the Blues'', one of the oldest and largest
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
festivals, has been held in Jacksonville Beach since 1990. The World of Nations Celebration has been held in Metropolitan Park since 1993, and features a number of events, food and souvenirs from various countries. The Art Walk, a monthly outdoor art festival formerly on the first Wednesday of each month, was sponsored by Downtown Vision, Inc, an organization which works to promote artistic talent and venues on the First Coast. This Art Walk - renowned and attracted many art lovers and traditional artists alike participating from New York City and Los Angeles, California, used to be held at Hemming Plaza (now James Weldon Johnson Park) prior to 2017 before it was reduced in size and character, resembling somewhat like Central Park in New York City, and is now selectively held at MOCA at UNF indoors, in downtown Jacksonville after 2017. Jacksonville is home to many breweries and a growing number of distilleries. Other events include the Blessing of the Fleet held in March since 1985 and the Greater Jacksonville Agricultural Fair in November at the Jacksonville Fairgrounds and Exposition Center featuring games, rides, food, entertainment and livestock exhibition. Riverside Arts Market (RAM), an outdoor arts-and-crafts market on the Riverwalk, occurs every Saturday under the canopy of the Fuller Warren Bridge. Holiday celebrations include the Freedom, Fanfare & Fireworks celebration on
July 4 Events Pre-1600 * 362 BC – Battle of Mantinea: The Thebans, led by Epaminondas, defeated the Spartans. * 414 – Emperor Theodosius II, age 13, yields power to his older sister Aelia Pulcheria, who reigned as regent and procla ...
, the lighting of Jacksonville's official
Christmas tree A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen pinophyta, conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, associated with the celebration of Christmas. It may also consist of an artificial tree of similar appearance. The custom was deve ...
at the James Weldon Johnson Park on the day after
Thanksgiving Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...
and the Jacksonville Light Parade of boats the following day. The VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, opened in 2003, is a 16,000-seat multi-purpose
arena An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...
featuring live sporting events that houses the Jacksonville Sports Hall of Fame. It is linked to Theatre Jacksonville and Players by the Sea, both non-profit theater companies, and attracts national and prominent local live theater performances. It replaced the outdated
Jacksonville Coliseum The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum (originally and still commonly known as the Jacksonville Coliseum) was a multi-purpose arena located in Jacksonville, Florida. Built in 1960 and known as "northern Florida's most historic concert venue ...
, built in 1960 and demolished on June 26, 2003. Daily's Place is an amphitheater adjacent to EverBank Field and regularly hosts concerts. The Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens has the second largest animal collection in the state. The zoo features elephants, lions, and
jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large felidae, cat species and the only extant taxon, living member of the genus ''Panthera'' that is native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the biggest cat spe ...
s, with an exhibit, ''Range of the Jaguar'', hosted by the former owners of the
Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team ...
, Delores and Wayne Weaver. It also has a multitude of reptile houses, free flight aviaries, and many other animals. Theatre Jacksonville, a once prominent non-profit and for-profit theatrical production company, was organized in 1919 as the ''Little Theatre'' and is one of the oldest continually producing
community theater Community theatre refers to any Theatre, theatrical performance made in relation to particular Community, communities—its usage includes theatre made by, with, and for a community. It may refer to a production that is made entirely by a communit ...
s in the United States. Alhambra Theater & Dining, opened in 1967 in Jacksonville as the Alhambra Dinner Theatre, is the oldest continually operated dinner theater in the United States. There are a number of other community theaters in Jacksonville, such as ''Players by the Sea'' near Jacksonville Beach, the 5 & Dime Theatre Co. in downtown Jacksonville, the Murray Hill Art Center was reopened in February 2012, and is operated by the Art League of Jacksonville, a nonprofit organization dedicated to arts education. The center is in the historic Murray Hill area and offers community arts classes. Jacksonville has two fully enclosed shopping malls. The oldest is the Regency Square Mall, which opened in 1967 and is on former sand dunes in the Arlington area. The other is The Avenues Mall. It opened in 1990 on the Southside at the intersection of I-95 and U.S. 1. There is a third indoor mall in the metropolitan area, The Orange Park Mall, but it is just outside of Jacksonville in
Orange Park, Florida Orange Park is a town in Clay County, Florida, United States. As a suburb of Jacksonville in neighboring Duval County, it is formally a part of the Jacksonville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 9,089 at the 2020 cen ...
, in Clay County. The St. Johns Town Center opened in 2005, on the south side of Jacksonville. River City Marketplace opened in 2006, on the north side of Jacksonville. Both of these are "open-air" malls, with a mix of stores but not contained under the same roof.


Literature, film and television

A handful of significant literary works and authors are associated with Jacksonville and the surrounding area. Perhaps the most important is
James Weldon Johnson James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist Grace Nail Johnson. Johnson was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ...
, who moved North and was influential in the Harlem Renaissance. In 1920 he also became the first African American to lead the
NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
civil rights organization. His first success as a writer was the poem " Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" (1899), which his brother Rosamond Johnson set to music; the song became unofficially known as the "Negro National Anthem". Already famous for having written ''
Uncle Tom's Cabin ''Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly'' is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in two Volume (bibliography), volumes in 1852, the novel had a profound effect on attitudes toward African Americans ...
'' (1852), northern writer
Harriet Beecher Stowe Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and wrote the popular novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (185 ...
published '' Palmetto Leaves'' in 1873. A travel guide and memoir about her winters in the town of Mandarin, Florida, it was one of the first guides written about Florida and stimulated the state's first boom in the 1880s of tourism and residential development. Jacksonville embraced the movies. Sun-Ray Cinema, also known as the 5 Points Theatre and Riverside Theatre, opened in 1927. It was the first theater in Florida equipped to show the new "talking pictures" and the third nationally. It is in the Five Points section of town and was renamed as the ''Five Points Theater'' in 1949. The Florida Theatre, also opened in 1927, is in downtown Jacksonville and is one of only four remaining high-style movie palaces that were built in Florida during the Mediterranean Revival architectural boom of the 1920s. Since that time, Jacksonville has been chosen by a number of film and television studios for
location shooting Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior. When filmmaking professionals refer to shooting "on location", they are ...
. Notable motion pictures that have been partially or completely shot in Jacksonville since the silent film era include the classic thriller, '' Creature from the Black Lagoon'' (1954). Since the late 20th century, the city has attracted numerous film companies, which shot '' The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking'' (1988), '' Brenda Starr'' (1989), '' G.I. Jane'' (1997), '' The Devil's Advocate'' (1997), ''Ride'' (1998), '' Why Do Fools Fall in Love'' (1998), '' Forces of Nature'' (1999), '' Tigerland'' (2000), '' Sunshine State'' (2002), ''
Basic Basic or BASIC may refer to: Science and technology * BASIC, a computer programming language * Basic (chemistry), having the properties of a base * Basic access authentication, in HTTP Entertainment * Basic (film), ''Basic'' (film), a 2003 film ...
'' (2003), '' The Manchurian Candidate'' (2004), '' Lonely Hearts'' (2006), '' Moving McAllister'' (2007), ''The Year of Getting to Know Us'' (2008), '' The Ramen Girl'' (2008) and '' Like Dandelion Dust'' (2009). Notable television series or made-for-television films that have been partially or completely shot in Jacksonville include '' Inherit the Wind'' (1988), '' Orpheus Descending'' (1990), '' Saved by the Light'' (1995), '' The Babysitter's Seduction'' (1996), '' First Time Felon'' (1997), '' Safe Harbor'' (2009), '' Recount'' (2008), ''
American Idol ''American Idol'' is an American Music competition, singing competition television series created by Simon Fuller, produced by Fremantle (company), Fremantle North America and 19 Entertainment, and distributed by Fremantle North America. It a ...
'' (2009), and '' Ash vs Evil Dead'' (2015).


Museums and art galleries

The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens is an
art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...
in Jacksonville's Riverside neighborhood. It was founded in 1961, following the death of Ninah Mae Holden Cummer, who bequeathed her art collection, house and gardens to the museum. Its galleries display one of the world's three most comprehensive collections of
Meissen porcelain Meissen porcelain or Meissen china was the first Europe, European hard-paste porcelain. Early experiments were done in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger continued von Tschirnhaus's ...
, as well as large collections of American, European, and Japanese art. The grounds contain two acres of Italian and English gardens begun by Ninah Cummer. The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA Jacksonville) is a
contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...
museum funded and operated as a "cultural resource" of the University of North Florida. Tracing its roots to the formation of Jacksonville's Fine Arts Society in 1924, it opened its current facility in 2003 next to the Main Library downtown. The museum features eclectic permanent and traveling exhibitions, and a collection of over 700 works. The Museum of Science & History (MOSH), in downtown's Southbank Riverwalk, specializes in science and local history exhibits. It features a main exhibit that changes quarterly, plus three floors of nature exhibits, an extensive exhibit on the history of Northeast Florida, a hands-on science area, and the area's only
astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...
theater, the Bryan Gooding Planetarium. Kingsley Plantation is a historic
plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...
built in 1798. The house of Zephaniah Kingsley, barn, kitchen, and slave cabins have been preserved. Alexander Brest, founder of Duval Engineering and Contracting Co., was the benefactor for the Alexander Brest Museum and Gallery on the campus of Jacksonville University. The exhibits are a diverse collection of carved ivory,
Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...
artifacts, Steuben glass, Chinese porcelain and
cloisonné Cloisonné () is an ancient technology, ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects with colored material held in place or separated by metal strips or wire, normally of gold. In recent centuries, vitreous enamel has been used, but inla ...
, Tiffany glass, Boehm porcelain, and rotating exhibits of the work of local, regional, national and international artists. Three other art galleries are at educational institutions in town. Florida State College at Jacksonville has the Kent Gallery on their westside campus and the Wilson Center for the Arts at their main campus. The University Gallery is on the campus of the University of North Florida. The Jacksonville
Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum The Karpeles Manuscript Library Museums is one of the largest private collections of historic manuscripts and documents in the world. It was founded in 1983 by California real estate magnates David Karpeles and , with the goal of stimulating inte ...
is a branch of the world's largest private collection of original manuscripts and documents. The museum in Jacksonville is in a 1921 neoclassical building on the outskirts of downtown. In addition to document displays, an antique-book library has numerous volumes dating from the late 19th century. The Catherine Street Fire Station building is on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
; it was relocated to Metropolitan Park in 1993. It houses the Jacksonville Fire Museum and features more than 500 artifacts, including an 1806 hand pumper. The LaVilla Museum opened in 1999 and features a permanent display of African-American history. In addition, the art exhibits are changed periodically. The city has several outstanding historical properties, some of which have been adapted to new uses. These include the Klutho Building, the Old Morocco Temple Building, the Palm and Cycad Arboretum, and the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center, originally built as Union Station train depot. The Jacksonville Historical Society showcases two restoration projects: the 1887 St. Andrews Episcopal Church and the 1879 Merrill House, both near the sports complex. The Jacksonville Naval Museum opened in 2022 with the museum ship USS ''Orleck'' as its centerpiece. This museum gives tribute to the city's naval history.


Music

The Ritz Theatre, opened in 1929, is in the LaVilla neighborhood of the northern part of Jacksonville's downtown. The Jacksonville music scene was active in the 1930s in LaVilla, which was known as "Harlem of the
South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...
". Black musicians from across the country visited Jacksonville to play standing room only performances at the Ritz Theatre and the ''Knights of Pythias Hall''.
Cab Calloway Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the Swing music, swing era. His niche ...
,
Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...
,
Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phra ...
, and
Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
were a few of the legendary performers who appeared. After his mother died when he was 15,
Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential musicians in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Gen ...
lived with friends of his mother while he played piano at the Ritz for a year, before moving on to fame and fortune. The Ritz Theatre was rebuilt, and reopened in October 1999. The Jacksonville Jazz Festival has been held for than 40 years. It takes place over the three-day Memorial Day weekend, and includes the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition. During the 1960s, the Classics IV was the most successful pop rock band from Jacksonville.
Southern Rock Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music and a genre of Americana. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitars and vocals. History 1950s and 1960s: origin ...
was defined by the Allman Brothers Band, which formed in 1969 in Jacksonville.
Lynyrd Skynyrd Lynyrd Skynyrd (, ) is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida in 1964. The group originally formed as My Backyard and comprised Ronnie Van Zant (vocals), Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Junstrom ...
achieved near cult status and inspired Blackfoot, Molly Hatchet and .38 Special, all successful in the 1970s. The 1980s were a quiet decade for musical talent in Jacksonville. The Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts consists of three distinct halls: the ''Jim & Jan Moran Theater'', a venue for touring Broadway shows; the ''Jacoby Symphony Hall'', home of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra; and the ''Terry Theater'', intended for small shows and recitals. The building was originally erected as the Civic Auditorium in 1962 and underwent a major renovation and construction in 1996. The next local group to achieve national success was the
nu metal Nu metal (sometimes stylized as nü-metal, with a metal umlaut) is a subgenre of that combines elements of heavy metal music with elements of other music genres such as hip hop music, hip hop, funk, industrial music, industrial, and grunge. Nu ...
band
Limp Bizkit Limp Bizkit is an American nu metal band from Jacksonville, Florida. Its lineup consists of lead vocalist Fred Durst, drummer John Otto (drummer), John Otto, guitarist Wes Borland, turntablist DJ Lethal and bassist Sam Rivers (bassist), Sam ...
, formed in 1994. Other popular acts from Jacksonville were
hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
acts 95 South,
69 Boyz 69 Boyz is an American Miami bass and hip hop music, hip hop duo: Van "Thrill Da Playa" Bryant, from Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville, Florida, and Barry "Fast" Wright, from Orlando, Florida, United States. The group was initiated by Thrill D ...
, and the Quad City DJ's. The bands
Inspection 12 Inspection 12 is an American pop punk band from Jacksonville, Florida, founded by Robert Reid, Dan McLintock, John Comee and Scott Shad. They have released two full-length recordings internationally, one on Honest Don's Records and one on Suburb ...
,
Cold Cold is the presence of low temperature, especially in the atmosphere. In common usage, cold is often a subjectivity, subjective perception. A lower bound to temperature is absolute zero, defined as 0.00K on the Kelvin scale, an absolute t ...
, and Yellowcard were also well known and had a large national following. After 2000, additional rock bands such as Fit For Rivals, Burn Season, Evergreen Terrace, Shinedown, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Electric President, and
Black Kids Black Kids are an American indie rock band. Formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2006, the group consists of singer/guitarist Reggie Youngblood, keyboardists/backup singers Ali Youngblood and Dawn Watley, bassist Owen Holmes, and drummer Kevin Sn ...
attained national attention for various
hit song A hit song, also known as a hit record, hit single, or simply hit, is a recorded song or instrumental that becomes broadly popular or well-known. Although ''hit song'' means any widely played or big-selling song, the specific term ''hit record'' ...
s and albums. In the 2010–20s, further urban developments resulted in numerous
hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
recording artists emerging from the city, some of whom have reached mainstream notability and signed to major labels. These include Nardo Wick (signed to
RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
), SpotemGottem (signed to
Geffen Records Geffen Records (formerly The David Geffen Company from 1980 to 1992 and Geffen Records Inc. from 1993 to 2004) is an American record label, founded in late 1980 by David Geffen. Originally a music subsidiary of the company known as Geffen Pi ...
), YK Osiris (signed to
Def Jam Recordings Def Jam Recordings (also simply known as Def Jam) is an American multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It is based in Manhattan, New York City, specializing predominantly in hip hop, contemporary R&B, soul and pop. The l ...
), Trap Beckham (also signed to Def Jam), and KaMillion. Prior,
Mase Mason Durell Betha (born August 27, 1975), better known by his stage name Mase (often stylized as Ma$e), is an American rapper. Best known for his work with Sean Combs, Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs' Bad Boy Records, he signed with the label in 1996 ...
of
Bad Boy Records Bad Boy Entertainment, doing business as Bad Boy Records, is an American independent record label. The label was founded in 1993 by rapper and record producer Sean Combs. During the mid-1990s, the label signed hip-hop and contemporary R&B, R&B a ...
fame was the only rapper to achieve such success hailing from the city.


Sports

Jacksonville is home to one major league
sports team A sports team is a group of individuals who play a team sport together. The number of players in the group depends on the sport. The highest level of a sports team is a professional sports team. In professional sports, the athletes are very t ...
, the
Jacksonville Jaguars The Jacksonville Jaguars are a professional American football team based in Jacksonville, Florida. The Jaguars compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. The team ...
of the
National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...
(NFL). The Jaguars joined the NFL as an
expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...
in the 1995 season; they play their home games at
TIAA Bank Field EverBank Stadium is an American football stadium in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It is the home facility of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL), and the headquarters of the professional wrestling promotions Al ...
. In 2005, Jacksonville hosted
Super Bowl XXXIX Super Bowl XXXIX was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles to decide the National Football League (NF ...
. The
PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...
, which organizes the main professional
golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
tournaments in the U.S., is headquartered in the suburb of Ponte Vedra Beach, where it holds
The Players Championship The Players Championship (commonly known as simply The Players, stylized by the PGA Tour as THE PLAYERS Championship) is an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Originally known as the Tournament Players Championship, it began in 1974. The ...
every year. Jacksonville is also home to several
minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nort ...
-level teams. The Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp, a Triple-A
baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
team, have played in Jacksonville continuously since 1970 and have consistently been near the top of their league in attendance. The Jacksonville Sharks, who began play in 2010, were the champions of the
Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...
's ArenaBowl XXIV in 2011 and now play in the
Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional indoor American football league in the United States. The league comprises 14 teams, divided equally between the Eastern Conference (EC) and Western Conference ...
. The Jacksonville Axemen are a semi-professional
rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as rugby league in English-speaking countries and rugby 13/XIII in non-Anglophone Europe, is a contact sport, full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular Rugby league playin ...
team founded in 2006, and now play in the
USA Rugby League The USA Rugby League (formally the US Association of Rugby League, Inc.) is the national governing body for rugby league in the United States. The organization is responsible for running the domestic club competitions and the United State ...
. The
Jacksonville Armada FC Jacksonville Armada FC is an American professional soccer team based in Jacksonville, Florida. They were founded in 2013 as an expansion franchise in the North American Soccer League (NASL), the second tier of American soccer, and played unt ...
is a soccer team that began play in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in 2015. The Jacksonville Icemen is a
minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nort ...
ice hockey team in the
ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...
that began play in the 2017–18 season. The team plays its home games at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. The Jacksonville 95ers is a team in
The Basketball League The Basketball League (TBL), formerly North America Premier Basketball (NAPB), is a professional basketball league. The league began operating in North America in 2018 with eight teams, and has since expanded. TBL's regular season runs from Feb ...
(TBL) that has played at Edward Waters University since 2024. All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is a
professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...
promotion based in Jacksonville and a competitor of WWE. College sports, especially
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
, are popular in Jacksonville. The city hosts the Florida–Georgia game, an annual
college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...
game between the
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
and the
University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...
and the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl, a post-season college football
bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...
. Jacksonville's two universities compete in
NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
Division I: the University of North Florida Ospreys and the Jacksonville University
Dolphins A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the cetacean clade Odontoceti (toothed whale). Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontopori ...
, both in the
Atlantic Sun Conference The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. ...
.


Government and politics


Government

In 1968 Jacksonville and Duval County consolidated their governments in the Jacksonville Consolidation. This eliminated a separate county executive or legislature, and supplanted these positions with the Mayor of Jacksonville and the City Council of the City of Jacksonville, respectively. Because of this, voters who live ''outside'' of the city limits of Jacksonville but ''inside'' Duval County may vote in elections for these positions and run for them. In 1995, John Delaney, a resident of Neptune Beach within Duval County, was elected as mayor of the city of Jacksonville. Jacksonville is organized under the
city charter A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document (''charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Traditionally, the granting of a charter ...
and provides for a "strong" mayor–council form of city government. The Mayor of Jacksonville is elected to four-year terms and serves as the head of the government's executive branch. The Jacksonville City Council comprises nineteen members, fourteen representing single-member
electoral district An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...
s of roughly equal populations, and five elected for
at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather tha ...
seats. The mayor oversees most city departments, though some are independent or quasi-independent. Law enforcement is provided by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, headed by an elected
sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland, the , which is common ...
; public schools are overseen by Duval County Public Schools, and several services are provided by largely independent authorities. The mayor holds veto power over all resolutions and ordinances made by the city council and also has the power to hire and fire the heads of various city departments. As before the consolidation, some government services are operated independently of city and county authority. In accordance with Florida law, the elected school board has nearly complete autonomy. Jacksonville also has several quasi-independent government agencies which only nominally answer to the consolidated authority, including electric authority, port authority, transportation authority, housing authority and airport authority. The main environmental and agricultural body is the Duval County Soil and Water Conservation District, which works closely with other area, state, and federal agencies. The Jacksonville Housing Authority (JHA) is the quasi-independent agency responsible for public housing and
subsidized housing Subsidized housing is a subsidy aimed towards alleviating housing costs and expenses for impoverished people with low to moderate incomes. In the United States, subsidized housing is often called "affordable housing". Forms of subsidies include d ...
in Jacksonville. The Mayor and City Council of Jacksonville established the JHA in 1994 to create a community service-oriented, public housing agency with innovative ideas and a different attitude. The primary goal was to provide safe, clean, affordable housing for eligible low and moderate income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. The secondary goal was to provide effective social services, work with residents to improve their quality of life, encourage employment and self-sufficiency, and help residents move out of assisted housing. To that end, JHA works with HabiJax to help low and moderate income families to escape the public housing cycle and become successful, productive, homeowners and taxpayers.


Politics

The present mayor is
Donna Deegan Donna Hazouri Deegan (born February 28, 1961) is an American politician and former television news anchor serving as the mayor of Jacksonville, Florida since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, she was elec ...
, who assumed office on July 1, 2023. Deegan's predecessor was Lenny Curry. Most of the city lies in the Florida's 4th congressional district, and is represented by Republican Aaron Bean. Most of central Jacksonville is in the 5th district, represented by Republican John Rutherford. In 2010, Duval County's
crime rate In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...
was 5,106 per 100,000 people, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The county's murder rate had been the highest among Florida's counties with a population of 500,000 or more for eleven years as of 2009, leading to widespread discussion in the community about how to deal with the problem. In 2010, Duval County's violent crime rate decreased by 9.3% from the previous year, with total crime decreasing 7.3%, putting the murder rate behind that of
Miami-Dade County Miami-Dade County () is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most-populous coun ...
. Jacksonville and Duval County historically maintained separate police agencies: the Jacksonville Police Department and Duval County Sheriff's Office. As part of consolidation in 1968, the two merged, creating the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office (JSO). The JSO is headed by the elected Sheriff of Jacksonville, currently T. K. Waters. The sheriff's office is responsible for law enforcement and corrections in the county. Likewise the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department became the consolidated city/county agency. However, the cities of Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach and Neptune Beach each retained responsibility for their own policing and fire protection.


Education


Primary and secondary education

Public primary and secondary schools in Jacksonville and Duval County are administered by Duval County Public Schools, which is governed by an elected, seven-member Duval County School Board. In the 2009–2010 school year, the district enrolled 123,000 students. It administers 172 total schools, including 103 elementary schools, 25 middle schools, 19
high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...
s, three K–8 schools, and one 6–12 school, as well as 13 charter schools and a juvenile justice school program. Of these, 62 are designated
magnet schools In education in the United States, the U.S. education system, magnet schools are State school, public schools with Specialized school, specialized Course (education), courses or Curriculum, curricula. Normally, a student will attend an elementary ...
. Three of Jacksonville's high schools, Stanton College Preparatory School, Darnell-Cookman School of the Medical Arts and Paxon School for Advanced Studies regularly appear at the top of ''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' magazine's annual list of the country's top public high schools, coming in respectively at #3, #7, and #8 in the 2010 edition.Mathews, Jay
America's Best High Schools: The List
''
Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...
'' magazine, June 13, 2010. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
Five other schools, Douglas Anderson School of the Arts (#33), Mandarin High School (#97), Duncan U. Fletcher High School (#205), Sandalwood High School (#210), and Englewood High School (#1146) were also included in the list. The Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Augustine operates a number of Catholic schools in Jacksonville, including two high schools, Bishop Kenny High School and Bishop John J. Snyder High School. Other private schools in Jacksonville include Arlington Country Day School, the Bolles School, Trinity Christian Academy, and the Episcopal School of Jacksonville.


Colleges and universities

Jacksonville is home to a number of institutions of higher education. The University of North Florida (UNF), opened in 1972, is a public institution and a member of the
State University System of Florida The State University System of Florida (SUSF or SUS) is a system of twelve public universities in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2018, over 341,000 students were enrolled in Florida's state universities. Together with the Florida College Sy ...
. Jacksonville University (JU) is a private institution founded in 1934. Edward Waters University (EWU), established in 1866, is the oldest college in Jacksonville and the state's oldest
historically black college Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...
. Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) is a state college and a member of the Florida College System, offering two-year
associate's degree An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree. ...
s as well as some four-year
bachelor's degrees A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Neo-Latin, Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and university, universities upon completion of a course of study lasting ...
. The
University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...
has its second campus of the J. Hillis Miller Health Science Center in Jacksonville. Other colleges and universities in Jacksonville include
Trinity Baptist College Trinity Baptist College (TBC) is a private independent Baptist college in Jacksonville, Florida. It was founded in 1974 by Trinity Baptist Church. It is accredited by the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. History ...
, and Jones College. Also in the area are St. Johns River State College, a state college with campuses in
Clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...
, St. Johns, and Putnam Counties, and
Flagler College Flagler College is a private university, private liberal arts college in St. Augustine, Florida. The school was founded in 1968 and offers 37 undergraduate majors and two master's programs. It also had a Flagler College – Tallahassee Campus, ...
in St. Augustine. The
Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science The Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science (MCCMS; formerly known as Mayo Clinic College of Medicine) is a private graduate-only research university based in Rochester, Minnesota, United States. It trains physicians, scientists, and allied h ...
also offers educational programs from its Mayo Clinic Jacksonville campus. File:UNF Student Union pic.jpg, University of North Florida File:JU2014.JPG, Jacksonville University File:Building A, FSCJ.JPG, Florida State College at Jacksonville File:Jax FL Waters College Admin Bldg sq pano02.jpg, Edward Waters University


Public libraries

The Jacksonville Public Library began when May Moore and Florence Murphy started the Jacksonville Library and Literary Association in 1878. The Association was populated by various prominent Jacksonville residents and sought to create a free public library and reading room for the city. Over the course of 127 years, the system has grown from that one room library to become one of the largest in the state. The Jacksonville library system includes the Main Library and 20 branches, ranging in size from the West Regional Library to smaller neighborhood libraries like Westbrook and Eastside. The Library annually receives nearly four million visitors and circulates over six million items. Nearly 500,000 library cards are held by area residents. On November 12, 2005, the new Main Library opened to the public, replacing the 40-year-old Haydon Burns Library. The largest public library in the state, the opening of the new main library marked the completion of an unprecedented period of growth for the system under the Better Jacksonville Plan. The new Main Library offers specialized reading rooms, public access to hundreds of computers and public displays of art, an extensive collection of books, and special collections ranging from the African-American Collection to the recently opened Holocaust Collection.


Infrastructure


Transportation


Roadways and bridges

There are seven bridges over the
St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...
at Jacksonville. They include (starting from furthest downstream) the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge (Dames Point) (which carries Interstate 295 Eastern Beltway traffic), the John E. Mathews Bridge, the Isaiah D. Hart Bridge, the John T. Alsop Jr. Bridge (Main Street), the St. Elmo W. Acosta Bridge, the Fuller Warren Bridge (which carries I-95 traffic) and the Henry Holland Buckman Bridge (which carries I-295 North/South traffic). Also, next to the Acosta Bridge is a large jackknife railroad bridge built in the 1920s by Henry Flagler's FEC Railroad. Beginning in 1953, tolls were charged on the Hart, Mathews, Fuller Warren and Main Street bridges to pay for bridge construction, renovations and many other highway projects. As Jacksonville grew, toll plazas created bottlenecks and caused delays and accidents during rush hours. In 1988, Jacksonville voters chose to eliminate toll collection and replace the revenue with a ½ cent local sales tax increase. In 1989, the toll booths were removed. Interstate 10 (I-10) and I-95 intersect in Jacksonville, forming the busiest freeway interchange in the region with 200,000 vehicles each day. I-10 ends at this intersection (the other end being in
Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
). Additionally, State Road 202 (J. Turner Butler Boulevard) provides freeway access to the Jacksonville beaches from I-95 on the Southside. I-95 has a
bypass route A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, to improve road safety and as replacement ...
, I-295, which encircles the downtown area. The major freeway interchange at I-295 and SR 202 was finally completed on December 24, 2008. SR 9B was completed in late 2019, and connects I-295's southeast corner to the Bayard Area. The SR 9B freeway will be called I-795 when it is completed. U.S. Highway 1 (U.S. 1) and US 17 travel through the city from the south to the north, and US 23 enters the city running concurrently with U.S. 1. In downtown, U.S. 23 splits from U.S. 1 and quickly runs to its southern terminus. The eastern terminus of U.S. 90 is in nearby Jacksonville Beach near the Atlantic Ocean. U.S. 23's other end is in
Mackinaw City, Michigan Mackinaw City ( ) is a village at the northernmost point of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, United States. Divided between Cheboygan and Emmet counties, Mackinaw City is located at the southern end of the Mackinac Bridge, which carries Inter ...
. * * * * * * * * Several regional transportation projects have been undertaken in recent years to deal with congestion on Jacksonville freeways. A $152 million project to create a high-speed interchange at the intersection of Interstates 10 and 95 began in February 2005, after the conclusion of
Super Bowl XXXIX Super Bowl XXXIX was an American football game played between the American Football Conference (AFC) champion New England Patriots and the National Football Conference (NFC) champion Philadelphia Eagles to decide the National Football League (NF ...
. Construction was expected to take nearly six years with multiple lane flyovers and the requirement that the interchange remain open throughout the project. The previous configuration used single lane, low speed, curved ramps which created backups during rush hours and contributed to accidents. Also, construction of SR 9B (future Interstate 795), is currently underway. File:Jacksonville Acosta Bridge Panorama.jpg, Acosta Bridge and FEC Strauss Trunnion Bascule Bridge File:Mathews Bridge.jpg, Mathews Bridge File:Fuller Warren Bridge, Jacksonville FL 1 Panorama.jpg, Fuller Warren Bridge File:John T. Alsop Jr. Bridge, Jacksonville FL, Southwest view 20160706 1.jpg, Main Street Bridge File:HartBridgeJax.jpg, Hart Bridge File:Dames Point Bridge, Jacksonville FL Pano 2.jpg, Dames Point Bridge File:Buckman Bridge, Jaxsonville FL Panorama 1 3667.jpg, Buckman Bridge


Transit system

The Jacksonville Skyway is an automated people mover connecting Florida State College at Jacksonville downtown campus, the Northbank central business district, Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center, Convention Center, and Southbank locations. The system includes 8 stops connected by two lines. The existing train is a UMIII monorail built by Bombardier. The guideway consists of concrete beams which rest atop an unusually large support structure not used in most monorail systems. Maximum speed for the train is . A monorail was first proposed in the 1970s as part of a mobility plan hoping to attract interest from the Urban Mass Transit Administration's Downtown Peoplemover Program. The initial study was undertaken by the Florida Department of Transportation and Jacksonville's planning department, who took the Skyway project to the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) in 1977. Following further development and a final 18-month feasibility study, the UMTA selected Jacksonville as one of seven cities to receive federal funding for an automated people mover. Two other related projects are Miami's Metromover and Detroit's People Mover. UMTA's approved plan called for the construction of a Phase I system to be built in three segments.


Modal characteristics

In 2014, the Jacksonville was among the top large cities ranked by percentage of commuters who drove to work alone (80 percent). According to the 2016 American Community Survey, 80 percent of city of Jacksonville residents commuted in single-occupancy vehicles, 8.6 percent carpooled, 2.6 percent used public transportation, and 2.7 percent walked. All other forms of transportation combined for 1.7 percent of the commuter modal share, while 4.5 percent worked out of the home. Some patterns of car ownership are similar to national averages. In 2015, 8.3 percent of city of Jacksonville households lacked a car, which increased slightly to 8.7 percent in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. Jacksonville averaged 1.62 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8.


Rail

Amtrak, the national passenger rail system, provides daily service from the Jacksonville (Amtrak station), Jacksonville Amtrak Station on Clifford Lane in the northwest section of the city. Two trains presently stop there, the ''Silver Meteor'' and ''Silver Star (passenger train), Silver Star'' (temporarily replaced by the ''Floridian (train), Floridian''). Jacksonville was also served by the thrice-weekly ''Sunset Limited'' and the daily ''Silver Palm (Amtrak), Silver Palm''. Service on the ''Silver Palm'' was cut back to
Savannah, Georgia Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Brita ...
in 2002. The ''Sunset Limited'' route was truncated at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas as a result of the track damage in the Gulf Coast area caused by Hurricane Katrina on August 28, 2005. Service was restored as far east as New Orleans by late October 2005, but Amtrak has opted not to fully restore service into Florida. Jacksonville is the headquarters of two significant freight railroads. CSX Transportation, owns a large building on the downtown riverbank that is a significant part of the skyline.
Florida East Coast Railway The Florida East Coast Railway is a Class II railroad operating in the U.S. state of Florida, currently owned by Grupo México. Built primarily in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th century, the FEC was a p ...
also call Jacksonville home. The Jacksonville Port Terminal Railroad is also based in Jacksonville. Norfolk Southern Railway, Norfolk Southern's Atlantic, Valdosta and Western Railway, Valdosta District also serves Jacksonville.


Airports

Jacksonville is served by Jacksonville International Airport , north of downtown, with 82 departures a day to 27 nonstop destination cities. Airports in Jacksonville are managed by the Jacksonville Aviation Authority (JAA). Smaller aircraft use Jacksonville Executive at Craig Airport in Arlington, Herlong Recreational Airport on the Westside, and Cecil Airport , at Cecil Commerce Center. The state of Florida has designated Cecil Airport a space port, allowing horizontal lift spacecraft to use the facility.


Seaports

Public seaports in Jacksonville are managed by the Jacksonville Port Authority, known as JAXPORT. Four modern deepwater () seaport facilities, including America's newest cruise port, make Jacksonville a full-service international seaport. In FY2006, JAXPORT handled 8.7 million tons of cargo, including nearly 610,000 vehicles, which ranks Jacksonville second in the nation in automobile handling, behind only the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The 20 other maritime facilities not managed by the Port Authority move about 10 million tons of additional cargo in and out of the St. Johns River. In terms of total tonnage, the Port of Jacksonville ranks 40th nationally; within Florida, it is third behind Tampa and Port Everglades. In 2003, the JAXPORT Cruise Terminal opened, providing cruise service for 1,500 passengers to Key West, Florida, the Bahamas, and Mexico via Carnival Cruise Lines ship ''Grand Celebration, Celebration'', which was retired in April 2008. For almost five months, no cruises originated from Jacksonville until September 20, 2008, when the cruise ship ''Carnival Fascination, Fascination'' departed with 2,079 passengers. In fiscal year 2006, there were 78 cruise ship sailings with 128,745 passengers. A JaxPort spokesperson said in 2008 that they expect 170,000 passengers to sail each year. Jacksonville Fire and Rescue operates Fireboats of Jacksonville, Florida, a fleet of three fireboats. Its vessels are called on to fight approximately 75 fires per year. The Mayport Ferry connects the north and south ends of State Road A1A between Mayport and Fort George Island, and is the last active ferry in Florida. The state of Florida transferred responsibility for ferry operations to JAXPORT on October 1, 2007.


Utilities

Basic utilities in Jacksonville (water, sewer, electric) are provided by JEA (formerly the Jacksonville Electric Authority). According to Article 21 of the ''Jacksonville City Charter'':
JEA is authorized to own, manage and operate a utilities system within and outside the City of Jacksonville. JEA is created for the express purpose of acquiring, constructing, operating, financing and otherwise have plenary authority with respect to electric, water, sewer, natural gas and such other utility systems as may be under its control now or in the future.
TECO Energy, People's Gas is Jacksonville's natural gas provider. Comcast is Jacksonville's local cable provider. AT&T Corporation, AT&T (formerly BellSouth) is Jacksonville's local phone provider, and their U-Verse service offers TV, internet, and VoIP phone service to customers served by fiber-to-the-premises or fiber-to-the-node using a Video ready access device, VRAD. The city has a successful recycling program with separate pickups for garbage, Green waste, yard waste and recycling. Collection is provided by several private companies under contract to the City of Jacksonville.


Health

Major players in the Jacksonville health care industry include St. Vincent's HealthCare, Baptist Health (Jacksonville), Baptist Health and UF Health Jacksonville for local residents. Additionally, Nemours Foundation, Nemours Children's Clinic and Mayo Clinic Jacksonville each draw patients regionally. The TaxExemptWorld.com website, which compiles Internal Revenue Service data, reported that in 2007, there are 2,910 distinct, active, tax exempt/non-profit organizations in Jacksonville which, excluding Credit Unions, had a total income of $7.08 billion and assets of $9.54 billion. There are 333 charitable organizations with assets of over $1 million. The largest share of assets was tied to Medical facilities, $4.5 billion. The problems of the homeless are addressed by several non-profits, most notably the Sulzbacher Center and the Clara White Mission. File:Baptist Health System.jpg, Baptist Health (Jacksonville), Baptist Health File:UF Health Jacksonville.jpg, UF Health Jacksonville File:MayoJax.jpg, Mayo Clinic Florida


Notable people


Sister cities

Jacksonville's sister cities are: * Bahía Blanca, Argentina (1967) * Murmansk, Russia (1975), Dormant status * Changwon, South Korea (1983) * Nantes, France (1984) * Yingkou, China (1990) * Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa (2000) * Curitiba, Brazil (2009) * San Juan, Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2009) In 2000, Sister Cities International awarded Jacksonville the Innovation Arts & Culture Award for the city's program with Nantes.


See also

* Duval County, Florida * Jacksonville metropolitan area, Greater Jacksonville * List of people from Jacksonville, Florida * National Register of Historic Places listings in Duval County, Florida * New World Publications (1972)


Notes


References


Further reading

* Bartley, Abel A. ''Keeping the Faith: Race, Politics, and Social Development in Jacksonville, Florida, 1940–1970,'' Greenwood Publishing, 2000. * Bean, Shawn. ''The First Hollywood: Florida and the Golden Age of Silent Filmmaking'', University Press of Florida, 2008. * Cassanello, Robert. ''To Render Invisible: Jim Crow and Public Life in New South Jacksonville.'' Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2013. * Cowart, John Wilson. ''Crackers and Carpetbaggers: Moments in the History of Jacksonville, Florida.'' * Cowart, John Wilson. ''Heroes all: a history of firefighting in Jacksonville.'' * Crooks, James B.
Jacksonville After the Fire, 1901-1909
', University Press of Florida, 1991. * Crooks, James B. ''Jacksonville: The Consolidation Story, from Civil Rights to the Jaguars,'' University Press of Florida, 2004. * Foley, Bill; Wood, Wayne (2001). ''The great fire of 1901'' (1st ed.). Jacksonville, Florida: The Jacksonville Historical Society. * Jackson, David H. Jr.
"'Industrious, Thrifty, and Ambitious': Jacksonville's African American Businesspeople during the Jim Crow Era,"
''Florida Historical Quarterly,'' 90 (Spring 2012), 453–87. * Mason Jr., Herman. ''African-American Life in Jacksonville,'' Arcadia Publishing, 1997. * Merritt, Webster
''A Century of Medicine in Jacksonville and Duval County''
University of Florida Press, 1949. * Oehser, John. ''Jags to Riches: The Cinderella Season of the Jacksonville Jaguars,'' St. Martins Press, 1997. * Schafer, Daniel.
From scratch pads and dreams: A ten year history of the University of North Florida
'' University of North Florida, 1982. * Wagman, Jules. ''Jacksonville and Florida's First Coast,'' Windsor Publishing, 1989. * Williams, Caroyln. ''Historic Photos of Jacksonville,'' Turner Publishing Company, 2006.


External links

*
Visit Jacksonville
official tourism website of Jacksonville * {{#related:Florida Jacksonville, Florida, Cities in Duval County, Florida Cities in Florida Cities in the Jacksonville metropolitan area Consolidated city-counties County seats in Florida Populated coastal places in Florida on the Atlantic Ocean Populated places established in 1822 Populated places on the St. Johns River Port cities and towns of the Florida Atlantic coast 1822 establishments in Florida Territory