Our Fort Lauderdale logo carries Florida's alligator, above “Est. 1845,” the year of Florida statehood — the shared emblem of every Merlin Classics Florida place. Printed in a worn black-and-white that recalls an old crate stamp, the alligator is Florida in shorthand: tough, native, and at home in the water. The alligator is the through-line that links Fort Lauderdale to every other Florida town we make. What makes this one Fort Lauderdale is everything around it — the New River, the 165 miles of canals, Las Olas, and the Venice of America.
The water has defined the city ever since. Fort Lauderdale grew through a Second World War naval-air era and a postwar tourism boom into the place it is now: a major Atlantic beach destination, a great cruise port at Port Everglades, and a center of the yachting world, host to one of the largest boat shows anywhere. The New River still runs through downtown past the Riverwalk and Las Olas Boulevard, and the roughly 165 miles of canals that thread the city remain its signature — liquid streets that earned the Venice of America its name.
Why People Visit Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale offers South Florida at its most nautical — a real beach city laced with canals, with a historic river downtown, a great cruise port, and the yachting world's calendar built around it. Visitors come for the water, the beaches, and the Venice-of-America canals, and stay for Las Olas, the Riverwalk, and the easy coastal pace. From the New River to the sand, it rewards a day or a week. It is bright, nautical, and genuinely South Florida.
