Railway Museum “Gold Coast” (Miami, USA) – expositions, opening hours, address, phone numbers, official website.

In the middle of the 20th century, one of the three Florida railroad museums, the Gold Coast, opened on the territory of the former Richmond military airfield, next to the Miami Zoo. The place was not chosen by chance: almost 5 km of railway tracks pass through the air base, along which some of the exhibits move today. The museum is dedicated to the history of the creation and development of railroads in Florida and the USA: here you can learn everything about the construction of highways, the principles of operation of locomotives and the design of wagons, as well as see powerful machines in action. See topschoolsoflaw for brief history of Maryland.

What to watch

The museum contains about 40 unique objects: steam locomotives and electric locomotives, passenger and freight cars, train models and models of stations. The exposition is complemented by documents, photographs and interactive displays.

The most valuable exhibit is the Ferdinand Magellan wagon in which Franklin Roosevelt rode. The 1928 Pullman car was converted specifically for the President to provide him with maximum security. The walls, floor and roof were protected with 15 mm nickel armor, two escape hatches were built into the ceiling and side wall.

For the youngest visitors, the museum has a narrow-gauge children’s railway, and the hero of a popular cartoon, Thomas the Train, drives around its territory.

On weekends, you can take a 10-minute ride in an old diesel locomotive around the museum’s backyard, and every first Saturday of the month, ride a single-track diesel-electric locomotive. A trip in a carriage costs 6 USD, in a cab with a driver – 15 USD.

In November and December, the museum hosts a Christmas program – a trip to the North Pole on the Polar Express with Santa Claus.

Practical Information

Address: Miami, 12450 SW 152nd St. Website.

How to get there: by skytrain (Metrorail) from the Government Center station to the Dadeland South station, then by bus number 252 to the stop. Sw 152 St & Sw 129 Av.

Opening hours: Monday-Friday from 10:00 to 16:00; Saturday-Sunday from 11:00 to 16:00. Entrance for adults: 8 USD, for children from 2 to 12 years old: 6 USD. On the first Saturday of the month, admission is free (except March).

Miami-Dade County Courthouse

Miami-Dade County Courthouse (USA) – description, history, location. Exact address, phone number, website. Reviews of tourists, photos and videos.

This historic building really needs to be photographed while in Miami. Although go find another angle so that it fits into the frame entirely. At the time of construction, it was the tallest in Miami and all of Florida. For many years it remained the highest in the country south of Baltimore. Taking into account the fact that at a height of 110 m it was built in 1928 and does not look at all like a modern skyscraper, this building really deserves a small photo session.

Dade County’s first courthouse was in Juneau, but was moved to Miami in 1899. It was then a two-story, timber-framed building with cells and offices on the first floor and a courtroom on the second. In 1904 it was replaced by a new building on Flager Street, a beautiful elegant limestone building, which, alas, after a couple of decades, due to the rapid growth of the city, turned out to be too cramped and was dismantled during the construction of the current building.

Taking into account the fact that at a height of 110 m it was built in 1928 and does not look at all like a modern skyscraper, this building really deserves a small photo session.

Just at this time, architect A. Tan Eyck Brown was entering a competition to build the city government building in Atlanta. His project was rejected, and then he redesigned it a bit and proposed it to the Dade County administration, which accepted it. At that time, the 28-story building was a real skyscraper, and among the residents of Miami, its construction caused a real stir.

Suddenly, having reached the 10th floor, the builders found that the skyscraper was sinking into loose local soil. After a meeting with an architect in Mexico City who faced a similar problem while building the opera house there, it was decided to make the base of the building wider, as we see it today.

In 1989, the Miami-Dade County Courthouse was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It fulfills its original purpose to this day.

The prison cells were placed on the top nine floors of the building, as these rooms were supposed to be the most secure and “non-runaway”. Already in 1934, the first prisoner broke the lock on the window of his cell on the 24th floor and descended to freedom through a fire hose. Over the following years, more than 70 prisoners escaped from the “non-runaway” cells.

The county courthouse is located in the historic district of downtown Miami, where you can see about 60 more significant and quite monumental buildings that grew mainly during the Florida land boom in the 1920s. These are the Congress Building, the Huntington Building, the Ingraham Building, the Freedom Tower, etc. However, more modest buildings from the era of the development of the state in the middle of the 19th century have also been preserved here. Among the latter, Palm Cottage, built in 1897, is the most famous.

Practical Information

Address: Miami, W Flagler st, 73.