The Township Survey Plats below, along with numerous land patents and military warrants issued by the Florida District Government Land Office provide a better understanding of early settlement patterns that still influence development of the City today. Present-day Atlantic Beach includes all or portions of Sections 4, 5, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 of Township 2 South, Range 29 East (T2S, R29E). Areas made irregular in shape due to natural boundaries such as rivers or coastlines were typically identified as government lots. Sections are then divided into quarter-sections that are 160 acres in area, and again into quarter-quarter sections that are 40 acres in area. Townships are divided into thirty-six (36) one-square mile (640 acre) sections which are numbered consecutively, commencing with the section located in the southeastern-most corner of the township. The Tallahassee Meridian and Base Line serve as the origin from which most of the Florida territory was originally surveyed. Townships are identified according to relationship to a central north-south axis, or meridian, and a central east-west axis, or base line, identified for a particular system. A township is a six mile square area of land, defined by east-west axes (also called townships) that form the northern and southern boundaries of any township, and north-south axes (called ranges) that form the eastern and western boundaries of any township. The PLSS is a rectangular survey system based upon a unit called a township.

Range and township