Miami Beach, city (1990 pop. 92,639), Dade co., SE Fla., on an
island between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean; inc. 1915.
It is connected to Miami by four causeways. Miami Beach is a
popular year-round resort, famous for its "gold coast" hotel
strip, palatial estates, and recreational facilities. The city's
chief source of income derives from tourism. The Convention
Center complex in Miami Beach has hosted several national
political conventions. Cultural institutions include the Bass
Art Museum, Miami City Ballet, and other facilties near Collins
Park; the Wolfsonian, a museum of design; and the Frank Gehry-
designed New World Center, home of the New World Symphony, and
adjoining SoundScape Park. The area was originally a mangrove
swamp. A wooden bridge was built from the mainland in 1913, but
development was slow until the Florida land boom in the 1920s.
The glamorous hotel and vacation industry began to decline in
the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, large numbers of Cuban refugees
from the Mariel boatlift flood