St. Marks, Florida in the context of Tallahassee metropolitan area

The Floridas (Spanish: Las Floridas) was a region of the southeastern United States comprising the historical colonies of East Florida and West Florida. They were created when Great Britain obtained Florida in 1763 (see British Florida), and found it so awkward in geography that it split the territory in two. The borders of East and West Florida varied. In 1783, when Spain acquired West Florida and re-acquired East Florida from Great Britain through the Peace of Paris (1783), the eastern British boundary of West Florida was the Apalachicola River, but Spain in 1785 moved it eastward to the Suwannee River. The purpose was to transfer the military post at San Marcos de Apalachee (now St. Mark's) and the surrounding district from East Florida to West Florida. From 1810 to 1813, the United States extended piecemeal control over the part of West Florida that comprised the modern-day Gulf coasts of Alabama and Mississippi and the Florida Parishes of Louisiana. After the ratification of the Adams-Onis Treaty in 1821 the United States combined East Florida and what had been the remaining Spanish-controlled rump of West Florida into the territory that comprises modern-day Florida.

U.S. Route 98 (US 98) is a major east-west thoroughfare through the U.S. state of Florida. Spanning 670.959 miles (1,079.804 km), it connects Pensacola and the Alabama state line to the west with Palm Beach and the Atlantic coast in the east. It is the longest US road (and the longest route of any kind) in Florida, as well as the longest US road in any state east of the Mississippi River.

It was established in 1933 as a route between Pensacola and Apalachicola, and has since been extended eastward across the Florida Peninsula and westward into Mississippi. It runs along much of the Gulf Coast between Mobile, Alabama and Crystal River, Florida, including extensive sections closely following the coast eastward from the Alabama-Florida state line to St. Marks.