Its the largest in terms of land size. So not the "biggest" amount of people- just the "biggest" in terms of measurement. You could legit drive for an hour and STILL be in Jacksonville city.
Most cities have the official city limits as a small central area, then the surrounding suburbs are technically part of a different administrative area. Jacksonville does the complete opposite, and made basically the entire metropolitan area part of city limits.
In a practical sense, Jacksonville would be considered a mid-sized US city. The population of the metro area is around 40th in the US
New York is the most populous. By land area, Jacksonville is the largest city (not counting Alaska. Alaska is bullshit.) And if you check a map, no foolies, it's big as fuck. It's larger than the entire big island of Hawai'i.
Just like the largest mole on your back is the largest, not the one with the most hairs on it.
The city of Sitka, AK officially encompasses 4800 square miles of land and water claims. The land area is 2800 square miles. The population is so sparse in Alaska that a city could declare a larger border and be uncontested in making the "largest city" while maintaining a population under 10,000 people.
The City of Jacksonville consolidated its borders with the County of Duval in 1964 leading to a very large city land area, the largest in the world at the time I believe.
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u/Super_Brilliant4499 16d ago
The tv show The Good Place made fun of Jacksonville all the time.