After Fidel Castro's take over of Cuba in 1959, this changed the city of Miami's future. By the 1980s there were around 600,000 Cuban refugees in Miami Dade County. Some historians called the city of Miami the New Ellis Island of this period. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, Miami was a haven for drug lords trying to gain control of the city's streets. Cocaine became the most popular drug in Miami during this time because of the easy access to the port city as well as the distance to neighboring Caribbean islands where the drugs would be transferred into the city. However, Miami has been a influential city in Florida as well as the United States as a whole. Miami is still being considered as one of the best cities to visit in the United States. ​

Around 1925, the Land Boom around Miami allowed the city to grow from 13 sq miles to 43 sq miles. The opportunity for quick wealth brought thousands of people to the city and the population reached about 100,000. Along with the influx of thousands of people, the city also experienced a breakdown in law and order, with bootleggers smuggling alcohol and the rate of violent deaths was the city's largest to date during the early to mid 1920s. ​

Henry Flagler, a multimillionaire due to his partnership with John Rockefeller, had extended a railroad to an area we now know as Miami. The industrialist had been planning to create a railway all the way to Key West, and saw Miami as a great opportunity. He built a marvelous hotel along the Miami River which began the city's upstart. ​

​

By 1896, the city had began to risen on both sides of the river, and the first train had entered the beautiful landscape. Flagler's new Royal Palm Hotel differed Miami from other new frontier cities because of its extravagance. This allowed the city to become one of the meccas in the south in the future.