How Real Estate Rogues "Invented" Florida - The Lightbulb Moment

in 1910 carl fisher and his wife jane bought a house in the sleepy town of miami florida the couple was looking to retire early carl only 37 years old had just sealed a deal to sell his automobile headlight company presto light for about six million dollars around 140 million dollars today but as jane eased into miami's leisurely social scene carl a perennial entrepreneur struggled to settle down instead day after day he would get in his speedboat and jet out into the bay visiting a mysterious island he would navigate up its waterways picking through jungly swamp land of mangroves palmettos blue hyacinths and tingly vines only to return home full of excitement carl's obsession baffled jane nobody she knew in miami seemed to think the island had any value beyond the occasional swim or picnic but carl had a plan one day jane ventured back to the island with him as alligator jaws snapped nearby mosquitoes swarmed their boat and a wet heavy heat descended on them carl navigated to a clearing of wet sand then he jumped out of the boat grabbed a stick and started drawing furiously soon jane began to make out a series of lines and shapes that resembled a map crude avenues crisscrossed one another with little buildings springing up in between carl was in the throes of a wild idea he proclaimed to her that he would build an extravagant city of elegance leisure and sunshine on this very clearing a place people would come from all over the world to see his wife thought he was crazy but you might know that place better today as miami beach this is the lightbulb moment a cheddar and curiosity stream original series florida actually boasts the oldest city in the united states before the pilgrims in new england or the jamestown settlers in virginia the spanish settled saint augustine but florida sat on the fringes of america's consciousness in the us's early history while the original 13 colonies developed largely together to the north florida remained a rugged dangerous territory under foreign or disputed rule well into the 1800s even after the spanish sold florida to the united states in 1821 it remains quite isolated there was really not much but swamp typical american settlements didn't really start until the late 1800s and they were limited to the coast and where rivers ran out into the bay roads sunk into marshy swampland mosquitoes spread diseases like malaria and yellow fever and terrifying creatures like alligators roamed but that was all about to change with the advent of the railroad in the 1850s florida's leaders set out to spur the construction of railroads offering land in exchange for anyone willing to lay down track and soon businessmen began betting on florida's future financing rail links between its once isolated towns and the southern united states as rail lines shuttled exotic goods like oranges northward to cities like new york and philadelphia they returned with an ever increasing load of tourists florida's legislatures also enacted policies like low taxes that encourage people to move there then there was the economy of the early 20th century years of rapid industrialization was putting more money in people's pockets this meant that just as florida was opening up to the country virtually everyone both rich and poor had more money to spend carl fisher the man who became obsessed with that island off the coast of miami got there just as the stage was being set for a land boom the likes of which americans had never seen before fischer got word through his lawyer that the island owner john collins was looking for financing to finish a bridge that would bring cars to the island so fischer offered some capital in return for a chunk of the island's land the bridge opened in 1913 stretching two and a half miles across the bay to help transform the island fisher recruited hundreds of workers first he focused on clearing the island's wild vegetation then he dredged up sediment from miami's bay to fill in the island's swampy land meanwhile in 1915 fisher got together with other landowners on the island and incorporated it into the city of miami beach by 1919 he had built the lincoln a luxurious hotel in the italian renaissance style offering a stunning golf course he soon added the even more elegant flamingo complete with the polo field tennis courts and gondola rides and of course he wowed visitors with his roman pools the beachside leisure complex sported a dutch windmill that pumped water into the pools a shopping arcade diving exhibitions dining and dancing perhaps the most famous spectacle had to do with president warren g harding when harding stated the flamingo he went to play a round of golf and fisher gave him a baby elephant as a caddy the elephant became a sensation making waves around the country carl fisher had put miami beach on the map but while carl fisher was one of florida's most famous promoters he wasn't the only one soon there were thousands of developers running around the state doing the same thing by 1925 it was clear all of these efforts had paid off florida was in the midst of a full-fledged land boom from 1921 to 1925 miami's population increased 165 percent orlando 140 west palm beach 121 percent parcel by parcel the state's topography began to transform as a constant flurry of activity filled in swamps reinforced shorelines and created luxurious new islands the islands you now see below are pumped up from the bottom of the sea and now contain beautiful residences the demand was so high that florida subdivided enough land in the 1920s to re-house the entire u.s population at the time investors were buying tracks sight unseen flipping them before the paperwork even went through to grant them the deed buyers just couldn't get enough in 1924 a man named dp davis sold 300 building lots in tampa bay in three hours they were virtually all underwater on july 26 1925 there were so many real estate ads in the miami daily news that it ran 504 pages long and weighed a staggering seven and a half pounds no speculative bubble can last forever though florida's didn't even make it through the roaring 20s with so many transactions happening so quickly authorities struggled to police the real estate market false advertising was virtually everywhere with prospective buyers seeing elegant mock-ups on paper and even sometimes fake movie scenery in person to trick them into buying often worthless land stories like this started to put a damper on the excitement surrounding florida then in 1926 florida got hit by another crisis this one was a natural disaster what is estimated to have been a category 4 hurricane destroyed huge swaths of developments killed hundreds injured thousands and drew attention to weather as a pretty big risk factor in any florida real estate venture as land buyers reeled from the destruction on the one hand and the stories of scamming on the other they began to pull their money out of the states soon a scene that would become commonplace in the depression hit florida first banks began to fold their capital dried up and they had to close their doors and remember that newspaper that once ran 504 pages of real estate ads well in just two years it had shrunk to 41 pages now filled with tax delinquency notices great florida land boom was over it had been quite a binge but the land boom of the 1920s was just one of the first waves while the bubble bursting damaged florida's growth in the short term it would pick back up again many times over the next century in the 1950s after world war ii the first cohort of social security retirees showed up seeking cheap living and breezy retirements the low cost of living also brought in many former gis south florida really didn't bloom until after world war ii when many of the people who trained here came back here because they wanted to build a life for their families the next big population wave occurred in the early 60s and that was the movement of people from cuba the cuban revolution here to south florida even more people came in the 1980s yet another boom period came in the early 2000s as cheap home loans fueled by the impending subprime mortgage crisis and good economic times supercharged the florida real estate market once again these subsequent rushes to florida have helped turn it into a cultural political and economic powerhouse the state boasts 21 million people today their votes can swing elections while their businesses and so many floridians connections to latin america have made florida's economy the fourth largest in the country but the problem is that below all the shimmering glass condos the tracks of picturesque mediterranean homes the delicious cuban restaurants and even the rides at disney world still sits that same rugged florida from two centuries ago and it's hard to contain despite the state's best civil engineering efforts sinkholes flooding and water bubbling up from the soil are all commonplace man-made structures have also hindered natural processes that help absorb water from big storms as land once teeming with vegetation has been paved over while many natural barriers like mangroves wetlands and dunes have been cleared bad news for a land mass that sticks right out into hurricane alley during a time of climate change and rising sea levels so as we look ahead many leaders in florida are worried about simply re-securing the state's future trying to tame that unwieldy land beneath their feet yet again and worrying about how much development florida can really handle in the long run thanks for watching if you enjoyed the video please like subscribe and don't forget to hit the bell for notifications you can watch full 22 minute episodes every wednesday at 8pm eastern on cheddar's live network or anytime on curiositystream

Channel: Cheddar

Views: 800,959

Keywords: Cheddar, cheddar explains, cheddar explores, explainer, curiositystream, the lightbulb moment, florida, the sunshine state, florida man, miami, tampa bay, fort lauderdale, beach, vacation, real estate, history, development, city planning, the everglades, disney world, roaring twenties, great depression, america, united states, investment, construction, urban planning, jacksonville, miami beach, florida history, usa, florida election, boom and bust

Id: Y3kt2WKT8DI

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 02 2021