Sweetwater, Florida

**Sweetwater** is a city of Florida in the United States.

During the 1920s, the Miami-Pittsburgh Land Company bought land near Miami. They planned to build "Sweetwater Groves." In 1926, a category 4 hurricane, (the Great Miami Hurricane), struck the area. Between the hurricane and problems with  real estate value at the time, this construction never happened.

In 1938, Clyde Andrews bought most of the "Sweetwater Groves" land and began to sell it for homes.  A group of Russian midgets were some of the people who bought the land. They were looking for a place to retire after their career in the circus. They built several homes on the land. These homes were not built for people of normal height. The homes were built smaller than normal so that the group would be comfortable living in them. This caused Sweetwater to be called the "midget" community for many years. Sweetwater became incorporated in 1941. . The first mayor of the town was the manager of the group of midgets. The town grew to a population of about 500 people by 1959. In 1970, Sweetwater was still a small town. Its population was about 3000.

During the 1970s, Sweetwater began to grow quickly. In 1972, Florida International University began teaching students at its campus just south of the town. Two large highways were being built in the area. One north of the town and the other to the west of it.  The area also got noticed by the Dade County Hispanic community. All of this caused the population of Sweetwater to double. The town had the largest growth of all cities in Dade County during the 1970s.

The city's population is currently over 19,300 people. Ninety-three percent of the population is of Hispanic origin.

## Other websites

- Official city website

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: Sweetwater, Florida
- **nickname**: Little Nicaragua
- **settlement type**: City
- **motto**: "Family, God, Education"
- **image skyline**: 2013-0811-DolphinMall.JPG
- **image caption**: Dolphin Mall, Sweetwater
- **image seal**: Seal of Sweetwater, Miami-Dade County, Florida.png
- **seal alt**: Official seal for the City of Sweetwater
- **mapsize**: 250x200px
- **map caption**: Location in Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County and the state of Florida
- **image map1**: Sweetwater.gif
- **mapsize1**: 250x200px
- **map caption1**: U.S. Census Bureau map showing city limits prior to the 2010 annexation
- **subdivision type**: List of sovereign states, Country
- **subdivision type1**: U.S. state, State
- **subdivision type2**: List of counties in Florida, County
- **subdivision name2**: Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade
- **government type**: Mayor-Council government, Mayor-Commission
- **established title2**: Municipal corporation, Incorporated
- **established date2**: October 10, 1941
- **unit pref**: Imperial
- **area total km2**: 10.96
- **area land km2**: 5.68
- **area water km2**: 0.28
- **area total sq mi**: 2.30
- **area land sq mi**: 2.19
- **area water sq mi**: 0.11
- **population as of**: 2020 United States census, 2020
- **population total**: 19363
- **population density km2**: 3410.48
- **population density sq mi**: 8833.49
- **timezone**: North American Eastern Time Zone, EST
- **utc offset**: -5
- **timezone dst**: Eastern Daylight Time, EDT
- **utc offset dst**: -4
- **postal code type**: ZIP Codes
- **postal code**: 33172, 33174 (Miami)
- **area code**: Area code 305, 305, Area code 786, 786, Area code 645, 645
- **blank name**: Federal Information Processing Standard, FIPS code
- **blank info**: 12-70345
- **blank1 name**: Geographic Names Information System, GNIS feature ID
- **blank1 info**: 2405554