Miami Beach

About the Beach

Miami is a vibrant coastal city known for its beautiful beaches, Art Deco architecture in South Beach, and diverse cultural scene. The city combines tropical climate with modern urban development and international influences.

Barrier-island sands that were mangrove swamp in 1900 became a resort after John Collins and Carl Fisher dredged and filled the land, and the town incorporated in 1915, growing through the 1920s land boom. Its low-rise hotels and apartment buildings of the 1930s and 1940s gained protection when Barbara Baer Capitman founded the Miami Design Preservation League in 1976 and the Miami Beach Architectural District entered the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The television series Miami Vice, broadcast from 1984 to 1989, spread images of the oceanfront worldwide. Strictly speaking, Miami Beach is a separate city, yet its shoreline and Ocean Drive now stand in for greater Miami in tourism and popular culture.