Waves Along the Shoreline at Panama City Beach

Panama City Beach sits along Florida's Gulf Coast in Bay County, facing the Gulf of Mexico. Its sand is made almost entirely of quartz washed down from the Appalachian Mountains, giving the shoreline the fine white texture that distinguishes it from darker beaches elsewhere in the state. The beach stretches roughly 27 miles, making it one of the longer continuous stretches of public shoreline on the Florida Panhandle. Development along this coast accelerated after the construction of the Hathaway Bridge in 1929, which connected the beach to Panama City and opened it to wider tourism.

Photo taken in February 2011.