At the end of the Second Seminole War, settlers and traders followed soldiers into the Orlando area. Originally named Jernigan, the settlement grew up around Fort Gatlin. In 1857, the city was named Orlando, for Orlando Reeves, a soldier killed by Indians at Lake Eola.

The city boomed several times; a railroad boom (which fueled a population boom), a real estate boom and a citrus boom. The late 1950s brought a boom that was to last: the beginnings of the Space Age. The Glenn Martin Company (now Martin Marietta Defense Systems) began missile production, and the creation of Cape Canaveral and later Cape Kennedy Space Centers on Florida's east coast brought infusions of cash and jobs to the area.

With the establishment of Walt Disney World in 1971, the area became worldwide theme park central. But it's not just the theme parks doing all the attracting: while nobody was looking, Orlando established itself as the high tech corridor - the Silicon Valley, if you will, of Florida. Watch your step - a 1998 study found that the stampede to Orlando has made it the most dangerous place in the US for pedestrians.