Attractions · Our pick in Miami
Miami fun facts: the back story
The back story
About Miami fun facts: the back story
Miami is a young city with a lot of stories. Here are a few of our favourites, each checked against the historical record.
A railway deal
Julia Tuttle, a businesswoman from Cleveland, persuaded the railway builder Henry Flagler to extend his Florida East Coast Railway south to the Miami River, offering land for his hotel and station. Trains arrived in April 1896, and the City of Miami was incorporated that July. A statue of Tuttle stands in downtown Miami.
A beach built from the bay
Much of Miami Beach was once mangrove jungle. In the 1910s the developer Carl Fisher had mangroves cleared and sand dredged from Biscayne Bay to fill the land, and the resort city grew on top of it.
Miami Beach did not just happen: much of it was made.
A pharmacist’s lotion
In 1944 Benjamin Green, a pharmacist from Miami, developed a suntan lotion that, with later changes, became Coppertone.
The pastel palette
The pastels of South Beach are younger than the buildings. In the early 1980s the designer Leonard Horowitz, who co-founded the Miami Design Preservation League with Barbara Capitman in 1976, created a palette of colours for the Art Deco façades, first trying it on Friedman’s Bakery. The city still uses his palette today in its Art Deco painting programme.
Nine miles of Beachwalk
Miami Beach’s Beachwalk began as a wooden boardwalk and is now a nine-mile path from South Pointe Park to 87th Street, completed in June 2022.
Our advice: combine these stories on foot. Start at the Art Deco Welcome Center, walk the Beachwalk north, and finish at Lincoln Road.
Why it's on our list
- A railway deal
- A beach built from the bay
- A pharmacist’s lotion
- The pastel palette
- Nine miles of Beachwalk
Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Miami fun facts: the back story before you go.