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Florida Panhandle Golf - Absolutely Florida! funandsun.com |
 The Florida Panhandle, also known as West Florida,[1] is the region of the state of Florida which includes most of the northwestern part of the state. It is a narrow strip lying between Alabama on the north and the west, Georgia also on the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the south. Its eastern boundary is arbitrarily defined along some chosen county lines, and it includes Tallahassee and the eastern Big Bend sub-region.
[edit] Physical featuresThe Apalachicola River is the largest river of the Panhandle. It is formed by the junction of several rivers, including the Chattahoochee and the Flint, where Alabama, Georgia, and Florida meet. From there, it flows due south to the town of Apalachicola. The largest city of the Panhandle is Tallahassee, the state's capital. Major military bases include the Naval Air Station at Pensacola (the home of Naval Aviation in the United States), Eglin Air Force Base, near Ft. Walton Beach, and Tyndall Air Force Base, near Panama City. U.S. Interstate 10 is the only interstate highway in the panhandle connecting the extreme west with North Florida and Jacksonville. It also has a section of the Christopher Columbus Transcontinental Highway, linking Jacksonville on the East Coast with Santa Monica, California on the West Coast. Other older east-west routes include U.S. Hwy-90 and U.S. Hwy-98. Important north-south highways include U.S. Hwy-29, U.S. Hwy-331, and U.S. Hwy-231, all linking to Alabama and Interstate 65. Culturally and in terms of history and climate, like the First Coast region (of northeastern Florida) and North Central Florida, this region is more closely tied to the Deep South than to the Peninsula of Florida. [edit] HistoryIn the 1830s, before Florida became a state, the people of the Panhandle voted to join the State of Alabama. However, before this action could be implemented, a financial scandal broke out in the Alabama Legislature, and the annexation was not carried out. Shortly after the Civil War, residents of Florida's peninsula considered ceding the state's entire western arm to Alabama for a million dollars. Alabama's leaders decided that the land was "a sand bank and gopher region" as a result the Panhandle remained a part of Florida. [edit] CountiesThe following counties are in the Panhandle: Cities in the Panhandle include Tallahassee, Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach, and Panama City. The beach towns, many of which play host to college students during spring break, in the Panhandle are sometimes known by the informal moniker – the Redneck Riviera.[citation needed] The quartz sand on the beaches of the Panhandle is so white that some traders reportedly sold it as sugar in World War II.[2] Florida State Road 20 stretches from Niceville, FL to Tallahassee, FL, covering the majority of the Panhandle, while U.S. Road 98 runs along the coast, stretching from Pensacola to St. Marks. The Panhandle can be divided into three major sections - East, Central and Western. The Western Florida Panhandle is dominated by coastal development and military bases, to include Eglin Air Force Base, Hurlburt Field, Whiting Field, Naval Air Station Pensacola, and Tyndall Air Force Base. Significant towns include Pensacola, Destin, Fort Walton Beach, and Panama City. The Central Florida Panhandle, stretching through Santa Rosa, Okaloosa, Walton, and Bay Counties, has been marked by upscale developments in recent decades. These include Seaside, Sandestin, and countless others. In fact, development in the coastal area has become so commonplace that very little beachfront property remains untouched, unless it is under the stewardship of the Federal or State Government. The Eastern Florida Panhandle is mostly defined by Tallahassee and its surrounding environs, including Wakulla County. The Panhandle has a land area of 29,276.055 km² (11,303.548 sq mi), or 20.96 percent of the state's land area. Its population at the 2000 census was 1,222,492 residents, or 7.649 percent of the state's population at that time. [edit] Major communitiesSee Also: "The Plot To Bomb The Panhandle" by A Day To Remember [edit] References
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