A river that runs the wrong way. The St. Johns is one of the few major rivers in North America that flows south to north, draining toward the Atlantic past seven bridges inside the city limits. The river is the reason Jacksonville exists and the spine it still grows along — and a Navy town besides, with generations of sailors stationed at Mayport and NAS Jacksonville who carry River City with them wherever the fleet sends them.
Today Jacksonville is the largest city by land area in the contiguous United States and home to one of the nation's largest urban park systems — barrier-island beaches, 80,000 acres of parks, and a downtown of Prairie School towers along a north-flowing river. Our retro Jacksonville, FL collection draws on that layered story: the Great Fire and the rebuild, the silent-film years, the alligator and the river, the River City pride that travels with everyone who has ever called it home.
Why People Visit Jacksonville, FL
Jacksonville rewards travelers who like a city that surprises them: Prairie School architecture in the Deep South, a river that flows north to the sea, miles of Atlantic beach, and a deep Navy heritage at Mayport and NAS Jacksonville. It is a lived-in River City, not a postcard — and that is the appeal.
