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Ponte Vedra Beach is an unincorporated seaside community 18 miles (29 km)
southeast of downtown Jacksonville, Florida, near St. Augustine, Florida in St.
Johns County, Florida. It is an upmarket tourist resort best known for its
association with golf. It is the home of the ATP Tour, the PGA TOUR, and THE
PLAYERS Championship is played at The Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass. The
area is known for its resorts including the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club (a AAA five
diamond resort), the Lodge and Club (four diamonds), and the Marriott at
Sawgrass (three diamonds). It also lies in the fourth wealthiest county in
Florida, ranking just behind the Palm Beach and Naples areas. Most of the
beaches have limited public access, with the exception of Mickler's Landing and
Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. Tennis and surfing
are other popular activities.
Ponte Vedra Beach may have been first sighted by Juan Ponce de Leon on his
search for the Fountain of Youth in 1513. In point of fact, this claim may be
made by practically any community on the east coast of Florida, since Leon's
precise landfall is unknown, and the fountain quest is in any case only a
legend.
In 1916 the community was known as Mineral City, and titanium (ilmenite)
extraction was significant, as well as that of zircon and rutile. These minerals
were recovered from beach sands by the commercial firm of the National Lead
Company, under the leadership of Henry Holland Buckman and George A. Pritchard.
During the First World War titanium was a component of poison gas, and therefore
a strategic mineral. The golf courses created for recreational purposes by their
company became the root of the present golf industry.
The present name of the place appears to be in honor of the city of Pontevedra
(Ponte Vedra), capital city of the province of the same name in the region
(province) of Galicia in Spain. In the Galician language (one of the four
official languages of Spain, which language in fact more nearly resembles the
Portuguese language), ponte vedra means "old bridge" (think "veteran pont"). The
Santa Maria, flagship of Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage of discovery, was
built in that town.
A fact little remembered in this day and age, even by those who live in Ponte
Vedra, is that the community was the site of a German submarine landing during
the failed Operation Pastorius. On the night of June 16, 1942, four German
soldiers from a German submarine came ashore carrying explosives and American
money. Five days earlier, another submarine came ashore in Amagansett, New York
on Long Island The German spies were captured before they could do any damage.
All were tried and six were executed.
Ponte Vedra Beach is also the site of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National
Estuarine Research Reserve, a large nature preserve that includes miles of
protected beaches, wetlands, and near-pristine woods.
Median household income in this "village" (city) is $79,608. The population
(including surrounding areas) in 2005 was given as 35,400.
Ponte Vedra Beach was 50th on the list of 100 finalists for CNN and Money
Magazine's 2005 List of the Best Places to Live. It was the first place in
Florida to be named in that year and one of only four areas in the state to make
the cut. By 2006 it had fallen off the radar.