City history
Founded along the Miami River on land long inhabited by the Tequesta people, Miami evolved from a remote river outpost into an international metropolis shaped by railroad standardization and Eastern Standard Time.
Chapter one
Indigenous name
"Big water"
The name Miami derives from the Miami River, which received its name from Lake Mayaimi, known today as Lake Okeechobee. In the languages of the regional Mayaimi and Tequesta peoples, Mayaimi meant big water.
Big water
Used by Indigenous populations to denote the large inland lake and the connecting waterways of South Florida long before European settlement.
Named after the Tequesta tribe
Spanish explorers, including Juan Ponce de León in 1513, recorded the coastal settlement and bay area as Tequesta after the resident Indigenous population.
Region surrounding Biscayne Bay
Before formal municipal incorporation, early American pioneers and traders informally called the wilderness region around the Miami River Biscayne Bay Country.
Village at the mouth of the Miami River
William English surveyed and plotted the Village of Miami on the south bank of the Miami River in 1844, establishing the modern civic name.
Incorporated municipality
Officially incorporated on July 28, 1896, with 344 voting citizens following the arrival of Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway.
Chapter two
North American railroads established four standardized time zones across the United States on November 18, 1883, replacing local solar time in Florida with Eastern Standard Time.
Congress passed the Standard Time Act on March 19, 1918, codifying standard time zones into federal law and introducing the first nationwide daylight saving time during World War I.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation placing Miami and the United States on year-round daylight saving time, termed War Time, to reduce energy usage during World War II.
Federal passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966 standardized the start and end dates of daylight saving time across Florida and observing states nationwide.
Miami adjusted to extended daylight saving time regulations, moving clock changes to the second Sunday in March and the first Sunday in November.
Chapter three
The Tequesta built the Miami Circle, a 38-foot ring of postmolds carved into limestone bedrock at the mouth of the Miami River, serving social and celestial observational functions.
Henry Flagler extended his railroad south to Miami on April 15, 1896, connecting the isolated settlement to national time schedules and driving rapid municipal growth.
Completed as the 289-foot headquarters for the Miami Daily News, this landmark tower modeled on Seville's Giralda bell tower became a prominent visual anchor for downtown.
A prominent four-sided digital street clock was installed atop 407 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach, turning into an iconic meeting landmark for residents and tourists.