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The Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach metropolitan area, more commonly referred to as South Florida, encompasses a tri-county area of southeastern Florida.
According to the 2000 census, the conurbation (which is officially known as the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL CMSA) has a population of 5,007,564, making it the sixth largest metropolitan area in the United States.
The South Florida metropolitan area is served by four major interstate highways. The busiest of the four, I-95, is the chief artery for rush hour traffic, and runs north to south along the coast. I-75 runs east to west, from Fort Lauderdale on the east coast to Naples on the west coast, before turning north. Interstate 195 connects the main I-95 route to Miami Beach, which located across Biscayne Bay. Interstate 395, also known as the Palmetto Expressway or the 836, runs east to west and connect the I-95 and coast to west Miami-Dade County and Miami International Airport.
Locally, the area is served by three county transit authorities: Palm Tran, Broward County Transit, and the largest, Miami-Dade Transit. The latter not only operates bus, but rapid transit (the Metrorail) and a people mover. Additionally, the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority operates Tri-Rail, a commuter rail system that connects the three primary cities (Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach), and all points in between.
The metropolis also has two major seaports, the Port of Miami and Port Everglades, both major cruise ship ports. Furthermore, the Port of Miami imports and exports goods from all over the world, making it one of the busiest in the country.
Most of the South Florida's business is conducted in Miami, in which, the downtown has the largest concentration of international banks in the United States. The area serves as the Latin American headquarters to a number of corporations, including American Airlines, Cisco, Exxon, Microsoft, and Sony.
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