BeachHappenings, Melbourne, FL, USA

The First Ever FREE Online City Guide for Brevard County and The Beaches

WhatBrevardWants.com - Your Online City Guide to Melbourne FL & The Beaches of Brevard County

Melbourne, Fl is located in Brevard County. Surrounding cities include Palm Bay, West Melbourne, Cocoa Beach, Cocoa, Indialantic, Melbourne Beach, Indian Harbour Beach, and Satellite Beach. Viera and Suntree, unincorporated communities, are also nearby. This quaint coastal community has much to offer residents and tourists alike. Fishing and Surfing is widely popular as the Gulf Stream offers the Florida coast some of the best fishing in the world. See how lovely and charming our area is by visiting our Melbourne Photo Gallery and our Things To Do pages.

The City of Melbourne is located on east central Florida's Space Coast. Melbourne is about an hour's drive south of the Kennedy Space Center, and 1-1/2 hours due east of Disney World. The City is in the southern portion of Brevard County. Interstate-95 runs through the county from north-to-south. Access roads from the west include the Beachline Expressway (formerly the Beeline) and U.S. 192, which runs through Melbourne to the beaches.

While most of Melbourne is located on the Florida mainland, a small portion is located on a barrier island. The Indian River Lagoon separates the mainland from the island. The island is a narrow strip of land that separates the Lagoon from the Atlantic Ocean. (In prehistoric times the lagoon was connected to the ocean. Today, the only connection is by way of a handful of inlets, including the manmade Sebastian Inlet at the southern end of Brevard County.) Spanning the Indian River Lagoon to connect the mainland to the barrier island are a pair of four-lane, high-rise bridges -- the Melbourne Causeway and the Eau Gallie Causeway.

History:

Juan Ponce de León is said to have arrived in Florida at the shores of the future county in 1513. "Mosquito County" was formed while the state was still a territory, and on some maps is absorbed into an unofficial "Leigh Read" county between 1839 and 1845. "Saint Lucia County" was created in 1844: it was renamed Brevard County in 1855 after George Washington Brevard, who served as Florida State Controller from 1854 to 1860.