Pensacola, Florida

www.ci.pensacola.fl.us/live/
City Limits are outlined
City with a 2005 population of 54,055. County seat of Escambia County. Originally settled in 1559 by the Spanish, the first settlement was destroyed by a hurricane months later and the effort was abandoned in 1561. The Spanish resettled in 1696. The French occupied the city from 1712 to 1722. In 1763 the territory was transferred to the British, who made Pensacola the capital of the colony of West Florida (what is now the western part of the Florida panhandle, the southern half of Mississippi and Alabama, and the eastern part of Louisiana.) In 1783 the colony was returned to the Spanish and Pensacola remained capital of Florida Occidental.

In 1817 American forces under Andrew Jackson, on a mission to pursue Seminole Indians and runaway slaves, occupied Pensacola and deposed the Spanish government. The military occupation led to the Adams-Onis Treaty in 1819, in which Florida was transferred to the United States. West and East Florida were merged and the capital of the territory was transferred to Tallahassee. During the Civil War, Pensacola was occupied and burned by Union forces in 1862.

Pensacola is a sea port on Pensacola Bay, which connects to the Gulf of Mexico. A large United States Navy airbase, the first in the United States, is located southwest of Pensacola (near the community of Warrington) and is home to the Blue Angels flight demonstration team and the National Museum of Naval Aviation.

Pensacola is nicknamed "The City of Five Flags" due to the five flags that have flown over it during its history: the flags of Spain (Castile), France, Great Britain, the Confederate States of America, and the United States. Other nicknames include "World's Whitest Beaches" (due to the white sand prevalent along beaches in the Florida panhandle), "Cradle of Naval Aviation" (the National Museum of Naval Aviation is located at the Pensacola Naval Air Station, home of the legendary Blue Angels), "Western Gate to the Sunshine State," "America's First Settlement," "Emerald Coast," "Redneck Riviera," and "Red Snapper Capital of the World."