Jacksonville, Florida, USA September 1996 The physical setting of the largest city in northeast Florida, Jacksonville, is captured in this synoptic, northeast-looking view. The north flowing St. Johns River is the broad, dark feature south of the city. Notice how the river narrows and changes direction as it enters the downtown area of Jacksonville; in fact the St. Johns River makes several major direction changes before the river turns east and finally empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The blue water of the Atlantic Ocean contrasts with the narrow band of white sandy beaches that are found along the entire northeast coast of Florida. The oval shaped (dark features) are lakes (sink holes) that have been formed by the interaction of rain water and the limestone rocks (karst topography) that are found throughout most of the central section of the peninsula of Florida. Two major highways, U.S. 301 (interior) and U. S. 1 (near the coast) are visible as very straight, light colored, linear features. Runways of Jacksonville International Airport (north of city), Cecil Field Naval Air Station (southwest of city), and Jacksonville Naval Air Station (south of city along west coast of St. Johns River) can be discriminated. Most of landscape is heavily vegetated coastal plains