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Five Historical Cruises In Florida

Learn and explore by boat.

For hotel discounts at these historic Florida boating destinations and more, click here.

Florida is at the Nexus of the discovery, exploration and fun. Plan your vacation cruise around historical landmarks and ports for an enriching boating experience. These five locales are great reasons to visit Florida.

El Centro Español de Tampa is a historic building in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa, in the U.S. state of Florida. Built as an ethnic and cultural clubhouse in 1912, the red brick structure situated at 1526–1536 East 7th Avenue[ is today part of a shopping and entertainment complex. It remains one of the few surviving structures specific to Spanish immigration to the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries,[7] a legacy which garnered the Centro Español building recognition as a U.S. National Historic Landmark (NHL) on June 3, 1988.

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The Ponce de Leon Inlet Light is a lighthouse and museum located at Ponce de León Inlet in Central Florida. At 175 feet (53 m) in height, it is the tallest lighthouse in the state and one of the tallest in the United States (the Cape Hatteras Light in North Carolina is taller at 207 feet (63 m)). It is located between St. Augustine Light and Cape Canaveral Light. Restored by the Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association, the lighthouse became a National Historic Landmark in 1998.

The Ernest Hemingway house is one of many waypoints along an historical cruise of Florida waters.

The Ernest Hemingway House, officially known as the Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum, was the residence of author Ernest Hemingway in Key West , Florida United States. It is located at 907 Whitehead Street, across from the Key West lighthouse, close to the Southern coast of the island. On November 24, 1968, it was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

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Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) is an installation of the United States Air Force Space Command’s 45th Space Wing, headquartered at nearby Patrick Air Force Base. Located on Cape Canaveral in the state of Florida, CCAFS is the primary launch head of America’s Eastern Range with four launch pads currently active. Popularly known as “Cape Kennedy” from 1963 to 1973, and as “Cape Canaveral” from 1949 to 1963 and from 1973 to the present, the facility is south-southeast of NASA s Kennedy Space Center on adjacent Merritt Island with the two linked by bridges and causeways. The Cape Canaveral AFS Skid Strip provides a 10,000-foot (3,000 m) runway close to the launch complexes for military airlift aircraft delivering heavy and outsized payloads to the Cape.

Fort Gadsden is located in Franklin County, Florida, on the Apalachicola River. The site contains the ruins of two forts, and has been known by several other names at various times, including Prospect Bluff Fort, Nicholls Fort, British Post, Negro Fort, African Fort, and Fort Apalachicola.

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places the Fort Gadsden Historic Site is located in Apalachicola National Forest and is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1972.

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