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Culture and Attractions
Culture and Attractions
Boca Raton is known for its affluent social community and high income demographic. Boca Raton has a large Jewish and South American influence. Boca Raton's South American population includes a large demographic from Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela.Boca Raton was the site of two now vanished amusement parks, Africa U.S.A. (1953-1961) and Ancient America (1953-1959). Africa U.S.A. was a wild animal park in which the tourists rode a "Jeep Safari Train" through the park.
There were no fences separating the animals from the tourists on the "Jeep Safari Train". It is now the Camino Gardens subdivision one mile (1.6 km) west of the Boca Raton Hotel. Ancient America was built surrounding a real Indian burial mound. Today, the mound is still visible within the Boca Marina & Yacht Club neighborhood on U.S. 1 near Yamato Road.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city
has a total area of 75.4 km² (29.1 mi²). 70.4 km² (27.2 mi²) of it is land and 5.0 km² (1.9 mi²) of it (6.63%) is water. Boca Raton is a 'principal city' (as
defined by the Census Bureau) of the South Florida metropolitan area. Like most south Florida cities, Boca Raton has a water table that does not permit
building basements, but there are several high points in the city, such as 4th Avenue which is aptly named "High Street." The highest point in this area
is the guard shack at Camino Gardens, which is 24 ft (7.3 m) above sea level. The Boca Raton Hotel's Beach Club rests at 23 ft (7.0 m) above sea
level.
Several small tunnels run under roads in Boca, but the roads are built up several feet at these locations, or are
located on dunes. Several of these tunnels are under State Road A1A at Spanish River Park, from the west side of the road where parking is available to
beachgoers, to the east side of the road, which is where the beach is located. A1A is already higher than the surrounding land here due to sand dunes
formed by erosion and other natural features.
