Jacksonville is the largest city in the of Florida and the county seat of Duval County.The governments of the City of Jacksonville and Duval County consolidated in 1968, giving Jacksonville a particularly large land area and placing most of its metropolitan area within the city limits. As a result it is the most populous city proper in Florida and the thirteenth most populous in the United States. Jacksonville is the principal city in the Greater Jacksonville Metropolitan Area, a region with a population of more than 1,525,228.Jacksonville is located in the First Coast region of northeast Florida and is centered on the banks of the St. Johns River, about 25 miles (40 km) south of the Georgia border and about 340 miles (547 km) north of Miami.

The European-American settlement that became Jacksonville was founded in 1791 as Cowford, so named because of its location at a narrow point in the river where cattle once crossed. In 1822, a year after the United States acquired the colony of Florida from Spain, the city was renamed for Andrew Jackson, the first military governor of the Florida Territory and seventh President of the United States.

Neighborhoods

• Greater Arlington (Arlington) is situated east and south of the St. Johns River and north of Beach Blvd.

• North Jacksonville, (Northside) officially considered to be everything north of the St. Johns & Trout Rivers and east of US 1.

• Northwest Jacksonville is located north of Interstate 10, south of the Trout River.

• Southeast Jacksonville (Southside, Mandarin), referring to everything east of the St. Johns River and south of Beach Blvd.

• West Jacksonville (Westside) consists of everything west of the St. Johns River and south of Interstate 10.

• Urban Core (Downtown Jacksonville) includes the south & north banks of the narrowest part of the St. Johns River east from the Fuller Warren Bridge and extending roughly 4 miles (6.4 km) north and east.