Ft Lauderdale, a city in Broward County, Florida, is known as the 'Venice of America' because of its intricate system of Canals. The city has been named after a series of ports that the US built, following the Second Seminole War. A 2007 US census reports Ft Lauderdale of having a population of 183,606. It is the seat of Broward County and is a principal city in Florida.

As a major yachting center, the city is a popular tourist destination and has over 42,000 resident yachts that pepper the city's 100 marinas and boatyards. The city of Ft Lauderdale and its suburbs is the home of over 4100 restaurants and more than 120 nightclubs. Economically, Ft Lauderdale relies heavily on tourism and in the period between the 1940s and the 1980s, the city was known as the Spring Break destination in the US.

Its dwindling popularity among the college crowd, however, has led the city to become one of the major destinations for a more sophisticated crowd of tourists. Major tourist destinations Ft Lauderdale, apart from its ports, include the Ft Lauderdale Swap Shop (a large indoor flea market), The International Swimming Hall of Fame, and the Hugh Taylor Birch State Park.