According the Bureau of the Census, Jacksonville is the second fastest growing city in the Southeast, and eighth in the U.S. Originally Cowford, where the cows cross, Jacksonville measures 845 square miles and is the largest city in the contiguous United States. Originally part of St. Johns County, August 12, 1822 established Duval County as a separate entity. A single governmental structure covering all of Duval County, except the beaches and Baldwin, was born when the City of Jacksonville and Duval County merged in 1968.
