Surprisingly sedate for a city of nearly a million people, Jacksonville is often said to have more in common with its neighbor Georgia to the north than the beach-based tourist centers to the south. Spread out over a vast area that ranks second only to Anchorage, Alaska in terms of size, Jacksonville is not your typical metropolis. As if to accentuate its differences from others, it is located at the mouth of the St. John River, which flows from south to north, the only river of any consequence in the United States to do so.