Coral Gables (/ˌkɔrəl ˈɡeɪbəlz/), officially the City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States, located in the southwest of Downtown Miami. According to United States Census Bureau estimates conducted in 2013, the city had a population of 49,631. Coral Gables is home to the University of Miami.
History
Coral Gables was one of the first planned communities, and prefigured the development of the gated community and the homeowners association. It is famous for its strict zoning regulations. The city was developed by George Edgar Merrick during the Florida land boom of the 1920s. The city’s architecture is almost entirely Mediterranean Revival Style. By 1926, the city covered 10,000 acres (40 km2), had netted $150 million in sales with over $100 million spent on development.
Merrick designed the downtown commercial district to be only four blocks wide and more than two miles (3 km) long. The main artery bisected the business district. Merrick could boast that every business in Coral Gables was less than a two-block walk. The city used to have an old electric trolley system which was replaced by the popularity of modern automobiles, but now a new free circulator trolley system, initiated in November 2003, runs down Ponce de León Boulevard.
In 1925, roughly simultaneous to the founding of Coral Gables, the city was selected as the home to the University of Miami, which was constructed that year on 240 acres (0.97 km2) of land just west of U.S. Route 1, approximately two miles south of downtown Coral Gables.
During World War II many Navy pilots and mechanics were trained and housed in Coral Gables.
Geography
Coral Gables is located at 25°43′42″N 80°16′16″W. It is bordered on the west by Red Road (West 57th Avenue) north of Sunset Drive (South 72nd Street) and West 49th Avenue and Old Cutler Roads south of Sunset Drive. It is bordered on the north by Tamiami Trail/U.S. Route 41 (South 8th Street), except for a small section that extends north of 8th Street for eight blocks between Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Douglas Road (West 37th Avenue). On the east, it is bordered by Douglas Road (West 37th Avenue) north of South 26th Street, Monegro Street south of South 26th Street to Cadima Avenue, Ponce De Leon Boulevard south of Cadima Avenue to South Dixie Highway (U.S. Route 1), LeJeune Road (West 42nd Avenue) south of U.S. 1 to Battersea Road, and by Biscayne Bay south of Battersea Road. On the south, it is bordered by the Charles Deering Estate.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 37.2 square miles (96 km2). 13.1 square miles (34 km2) of it is land and 24.0 square miles (62 km2) of it (64.64%) is water.
All information about Coral Gables courtesy of Wikipedia.
