COCOA-ROCKLEDGE

twin cities, Brevard county, central Florida, U.S., on the Atlantic coast. They are linked to Merritt Island, Cape Canaveral, and the city of Cocoa Beach by causeway across the Indian River (part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway). Rockledge, established about 1875 and incorporated as a city in 1925, was named for the formation of coquina rock that appears as ledges along the shore. Cocoa, named for the local coco plum, was incorporated as a town in 1895 and as a city in 1911. Early development was based on fishing, livestock raising, and citrus cultivation, but the two communities, which are mainly residential, now largely depend on tourism, a large fruit market, and the aerospace industries of the John F. Kennedy Space Center. Brevard Community College, at Cocoa, was founded in 1959. Pop. (1990) Cocoa city, 17,722; Rockledge city, 16,023.