Orlando, Florida

Orlando, known as the “The City Beautiful,” was incorporated as a town almost a century prior to the construction of Walt Disney World in 1971. The city is now renowned as a major tourist destination and shipping center, offering residents and guests alike a taste of southern Florida’s tropical climate. Orlando is also the seat of Orange County and one of the state’s most populous regions.

Landscape

Orlando sits in central Florida at the middle of the state. Some of the rivers in the area run south, feeding the Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee, and the Everglades. Others run north to the St. Johns River and the Atlantic. Rolling hills lie in the western part of Orange County, although most of the region is flat.

This bustling metropolitan area is surrounded by hundreds of lakes such as Lake Apopja in Orange County. Some are the consequence of sinkholes, while others are fed by springs. Orlando is about 85 miles northeast of Tampa.

The average annual temperature, 72 degrees Fahrenheit, is misleading. Temperatures exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit most days from mid-June to late August. Despite the hot weather, freezes do occur, jeopardizing the citrus crop. A notable freeze, still considered the worst natural disaster in Central Florida’s history, occurred during the winter of 1894–95. During that notorious freeze, some trees were killed down to the roots. Two impact freezes occurred in 1985 and 1989; because these two impact freezes occurred in such a short time frame, citrus growers were left with little time to recover. January’s average low temperature is 49 degrees Fahrenheit, with the average high in July about 93 degrees Fahrenheit.

Orlando experiences measurable rain 122 days per year, with a total of 51 inches of rain annually. This is considerably above the continental United States average of 30 inches.

People

Orlando is the state’s fourth largest city, with a United States Census Bureau estimated 2022 population of 316,081. According to the American Community Survey, 34.2 percent of those reporting a single race were White, 23.3 percent were Black, and 4.0 percent were Asian. 16.4 percent were of multiracial heritage. Those of Hispanic or Latino origin (of any race) accounted for 34.8 percent of the population.

Those who were foreign-born comprised 22.5percent of Orlando’s population. Some 40.6 percent of the population over the age of five spoke a language other than English at home. According to 2022 estimates, of those who spoke another language 70 percent of the total over-five population spoke Spanish.

As of 2022, approximately 15.2 percent of Orlando’s citizens lived in poverty in the previous twelve months. Of that number, 15.0 percent of children under eighteen years of age belonged to households living below the poverty line.

Economy

In early 2023, the region had a somewhat lower rate of unemployment (3.0 percent) than the US average (3.5 percent). In addition, in 2023, the Orlando area addied 244,600 private-sector jobs, with the leisure and hospitality industry powering most of that job growth. Orlando experienced a 10 percent drop in tourism revenue due to the 2007–9 global crisis and subsequent national recession, but the city’s tourist industry has recovered, with the industry generating $31 billioon in 2022, more than any other US city.

Orlando opened the Lake Nona Medical City, a 650-acre medical and life sciences complex, in 2010. The area has 4,800 life sciences, health care, and biotechnology businesses. Clinical trials, drug research, health care, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and sports innovation account for billions of dollars in annual income.

In 1956, the Glenn L. Martin Company, now Lockheed Martin, began constructing missiles in Orlando, contributing to the tech economy. The company is just one of the 220 in the aerospace and aviation industry that were drawn by the city’s proximity to the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Several flight schools are also located nearby.

Some 750 advanced manufacturing companies are based in Orlando. Major manufacturing focus areas include advanced materials, renewable energy, enabling components, and research and development (R&D). High-tech industries are an important component of the economy, with one of the nation’s largest concentrations of businesses specializing in modeling, simulation, and training (MS & T). Rooted in military services, this specialization also serves medical technology, homeland security, entertainment, optics, and transportation. Media and gaming, data mining, e-commerce, software development, and telecommunications are other key areas of the Orlando high-tech ecosystem..

Orlando is one of the few world transportation centers to offer four different shipping options. Amtrak offers commercial rail services, and other railroads offer cargo transportation. The trucking industry is deregulated in Florida, making shipping via truck very cost-effective. Sanford, twenty miles away, is home to the nearest navigable waterway, and the Kennedy Space Center maintains deepwater ports. Orlando International Airport is the nation’s eleventh busiest commercial airport, with more than 52 million passengers in 2022. Along with the Orlando/Sanford International Airport, it offers foreign trade zones (FTZ), where foreign goods can be processed or stored without import duties.

Landmarks

Walt Disney World Resort, with its multiple parks within the resort, is the primary attraction that put Orlando on the map. Opened in 1971, five years after the death of founder Walt Disney, the theme park welcomed more than 17 million visitors in 2022 alone, a number exceeding the population of Florida. Universal Studios Orlando, a motion picture-themed resort, is also another popular attraction.

Gatorland, situated at the head of the Everglades, is a 110-acre theme park and nature conservatory. This Alligator Capital of the World opened as a privately owned roadside attraction in 1949 between Orlando and Kissimmee. The park offers reptile shows, a petting zoo, aviary, and swamp walk. SeaWorld Orlando is another theme park that offers visitors a chance to interact with marine life. The attraction also features a water park, Aquatica, which features more than 80,000 square feet of beach, six rivers and lagoons, and thirty-six water slides. Both it and SeaWorld are now known as Worlds of Discovery, which also includes Discovery Cove and Busch Gardens Africa.

History

American Indians came to the region perhaps as early as twenty thousand years ago. These include the Timucua, an American Indian people decimated by diseases that were introduced after the arrival of the Spanish. The Timucua were few in number by the time the British gained control of Florida, with many leaving for Cuba.

Florida was next settled by about five thousand Seminoles who were refugees from Georgia after the First Seminole War (1817–1818). Conflicts arose as white settlers pushed into central Florida, leading to the Second Seminole War (1835–1842). By the end of the Seminole Wars, the Seminoles had been forced into the Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades, land thought to be uninhabitable.

During that war, the US army constructed Fort Gatlin. Just south of present-day Orlando, the fort was intended to serve as protection for settlers. A settlement took root around the fort, which was named for the first settler, Aaron Jernigan. The settlement changed its name in 1856 to honor an army sentry, Orlando Reeves, who was killed in the Seminole Wars. That same year, Orlando became the county seat.

The region became a center for cattle, which were sold to the army. Cattle were also supplied to the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The region never developed a plantation economy, even though the number of slaves in Orange County in the 1850 census nearly equaled the number of white settlers. Only sixteen of the sixty-five male heads of households in that census owned slaves, and most of those slaves were owned by five men.

Following the Civil War, the economy rebounded quickly, exceeding prewar levels within ten years. In 1875, with eighty-five inhabitants, the town was officially incorporated.

Citrus became a major industry, boosted by the extension of the South Florida Railroad in 1880. A number of British men came to Orlando seeking their fortunes during the 1880s. They brought a love of polo, golf, croquet, and tennis with them, influencing the local culture. The first polo games began in 1888.

Following the economic devastation of the Big Freezes of 1894–1895, seven of Central Florida’s banks closed. The population of Orlando decreased for the first time. However, the extreme weather encouraged people to diversify into growing vegetables and establishing dairies. About this time, tourism became a significant income, following the arrival of the railroad.

Prior to the Great Depression, the Mediterranean fruit fly infested citrus groves, infecting more than a thousand groves in Central and South Florida. A quarantine was implemented for nineteen months. Orlando was able to largely survive the effects of the Great Depression due to the presence of US Army bases. One of the bases became the site of a prisoner of war camp for German and Italian soldiers during World War II.

In addition to these two bases—which eventually became commercial airports—Orlando also was the site of initial planning for the invasion on D Day. It was also the location for the first tests of the insecticide DDT, used in South Pacific and other tropical arenas of the war.

Many of the personnel stationed in the Orlando area returned after the war as citizens and tourists. The air bases laid a foundation for the growth of technological industries, although Orlando was mainly an agricultural region. The US Navy built one of its three Naval Training Centers in the city, and it was used from 1968 until 1998.

In 1994, Orlando hosted FIFA World Cup soccer games. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, a number of artistic institutions were formed, including the international fringe theatre festival and the philharmonic orchestra. At the same time, Orlando's popularity as a rave site led to a crackdown. Area theme parks also expanded during this period.

Trivia

• The first name of Orange County was Mosquito County. The name change occurred in 1845, when Florida became a state.
• Dixie Highway, completed in 1927, was the first intrastate system for those driving to Florida. It ran from the Michigan-Canada border to Miami, passing through Orlando. The city was not connected to the interstate highway system until the 1970s.
• Both the first woman elected to the Florida State House of Representatives, Edna Giles Fuller in 1929, and the first woman elected to the Florida Senate, Beth Johnson in 1962, were from Orlando.

Bibliography

Clark, James C. Orlando, Florida: A Brief History. The History Press, 2013.

Dickinson, Joy Wallace. Remembering Orlando: Tales from Elvis to Disney. Turner Publishing, 2010.

Dickinson, Joy Wallace. Orlando: City of Dreams. Arcadia Publishing, 2003.

"FloridaCommerce Announces the Orlando Area August 2023 Employment Data." FloridaCommerce, 15 Sept. 2023, floridajobs.org/news-center/DEO-Press/2023/09/15/floridacommerce-announces-the-orlando-area-august-2023-employment-data. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

Foglesong, Richard E. Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando. Yale UP, 2003.

"Industries." Orlando Economic Partnership, 2023, www.orlandoedc.com/Industries.aspx. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

"1990-2015: A Look Back at Memorable Events in Orlando History." Orlando Weekly, 9 Dec. 2015, www.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/1990-2015-a-look-back-at-memorable-events-in-orlando-history/Content?oid=2455411. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.

“Orlando City, Florida.” United States Census Bureau, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/orlandocityflorida/RHI125221. Accessed 20 Feb. 2024.