Sunshine, orange juice, palms, flowers, alligators, and sandy beaches are all symbols of our southernmost state. This subtropical paradise sometimes seems like a Caribbean island that has been pasted onto North America. Florida’s largest city, Miami, is closer to the capital of Cuba than it is to Florida’s capital!
Florida juts into the sea some 400 miles in the form of an enormous peninsula with 1,350 miles of coastline. And where the mainland stops, Florida keeps right on going. A highway links Floridians and visitors with a series of keys, or islands, that arc southwest into the sea. The highway ends at Key West, the name of both an island and the southernmost community in the United States.
Often in the path of tropical hurricanes, no part of Florida is more than sixty miles from the sea. And fresh water is everywhere. Rivers wind across the lake-dotted land. There are also forested swamps and grassy marshes. Okefenokee Swamp lies along the Florida-Georgia border. Even better known are the marsh grasses, or saw glades, of the Everglades, with their scattered clumps of tropical trees. This wet wilderness is partly protected by Everglades National Park. However, the Everglades is slowly shrinking as the water that nourishes it is polluted or cut off.
Marshes and swamps make great hiding places. The Seminole Indians are unusual in that they never surrendered to the United States. They sought refuge in the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp, where they live to this day. The Florida panther, a type of mountain lion that is nearly extinct, also survives in the Everglades and Big Cypress.
Florida is the lowest and flattest of the fifty states. The highest point in the state, near the Alabama border, is just 345 feet! A ridge of low, rolling hills stretches across central Florida from the Okefenokee Swamp to Lake Okeechobee in the south. Most of Florida’s citrus crops—such as oranges and grapefruits—are grown in this region.
The astronauts who walked on the moon blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center, which is on Cape Canaveral next to Canaveral National Seashore. Yet even in the Space Age, Floridians retain some special relationships with prehistoric creatures. The state is nicknamed the Alligator State, for example, honoring a member of a group of animals that evolved before dinosaurs.
But Florida ?gators are youngsters compared to other Florida critters, like corals. Florida’s state stone is agatized coral, while the northernmost living coral reef in the United States is found in Biscayne National Park. One of Florida’s great game fishes gives its name to Tarpon Springs, the nation’s leading harvester of sponges, among the most ancient animals known. Their rubbery skeletons soak up water, making sponges useful in kitchens and bathtub. The next time you spill orange juice or Gatorade on the table and wipe it up with a sponge, think of Florida!
The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - 
