Miami Beach

City in Dade County, southeastern Florida; population (1990) 92,600. Miami Beach occupies the southern end of a barrier island (area 19 sq km/7.5 sq mi) between the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, and lies across the bay from the city of Miami.

Miami Beach is linked to Miami by several causeways. The first bridge to the mainland was built in 1913, when the island was still a jungle wilderness. Miami Beach was incorporated into the city two years later, but real development did not begin until the Florida property boom of the 1920s. Tourism is the largest industry by far in Miami Beach; the island's white sandy beaches are lined by hundreds of hotels, as well as large numbers of apartment blocks. A variety of recreational facilities, such as tennis courts and golf courses, are sandwiched between the bay and the ocean. Miami Beach also has some light manufacturing industries, and is home to several corporate headquarters. The city has a large convention centre, the Bass Museum of Art, several theatres, and its own symphony orchestra. South Beach, a 20-block stretch along the ocean in the southeast of the city, is renowned for its many pastel-coloured hotels and other buildings in the art deco style of the 1930s; this district became extremely fashionable in the 1980s. Bal Harbour and the town of Surfside (population 4,100) are situated at the northern end of the island.