Tampa, Florida
Encyclopedia
Tampa is a city in the U.S. state
of Florida
. It serves as the county seat
for Hillsborough County
. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709.
The current location of Tampa was once inhabited by various indigenous cultures, most recently the Tocobaga
. It was spotted by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century, but there were no permanent American or European settlements in the area until 1824, when the US Army established a frontier outpost called Fort Brooke
at the site of today's Tampa Convention Center
. The village of Tampa began as a small group of pioneers who settled near the fort for protection from the Seminole
population in the area.
Today, Tampa is a part of the metropolitan area most commonly referred to as the Tampa Bay Area
. For U.S. Census purposes, Tampa is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida MSA. The four-county area is composed of roughly 2.7 million residents, making it the second largest metropolitan statistical area
(MSA) in the state, and the fourth largest in the Southeastern United States
, behind Miami, Washington, D.C.
, and Atlanta. The Greater Tampa Bay area has just over 4 million residents and generally includes the Tampa and Sarasota metro areas. The Tampa Bay Partnership and U.S. Census data showed an average annual growth of 2.47 percent, or a gain of approximately 97,000 residents per year. Between 2000 and 2006, the Greater Tampa Bay Market experienced a combined growth rate of 14.8 percent, growing from 3.4 million to 3.9 million and hitting the 4 million people mark on April 1, 2007.
Tampa has a number of sports teams, such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
of the NFL
, the Tampa Bay Lightning
of the National Hockey League
, the Tampa Bay Storm
of the Arena Football League
and the FC Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League (2010)
. The Tampa Bay Rays
in Major League Baseball
, are actually based in neighboring St. Petersburg, Florida.
In 2008, Tampa was ranked as the 5th best outdoor city by Forbes
. A 2004 survey by the NYU
newspaper Washington Square News
ranked Tampa as a top city for "twenty-somethings." Tampa is now ranked as a "Gamma" world city by Loughborough University
. According to Loughborough, Tampa ranks alongside other world cities such as Phoenix
, Santo Domingo
, and Osaka
. In recent years Tampa has seen a notable upsurge in high-market demand from consumers, signaling more wealth concentrated in the area. Tampa has been tapped to host the 2012 Republican National Convention
.
, a Native American
tribe that once lived south of today’s Tampa Bay
. This might be a reference to the many lightning strikes that the area receives during the summer months. Other historians claim the name means "the place to gather sticks".
Toponymist
George R. Stewart
writes that the name was the result of a miscommunication between the Spanish and the Indians, the Indian word being "itimpi", meaning simply "near it". The name first appears in the "Memoir" of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda
(1575), who had spent 17 years as a Calusa captive. He calls it "Tanpa" and describes it as an important Calusa town. While "Tanpa" may be the basis for the modern name "Tampa", archaeologist Jerald Milanich places the Calusa village of Tanpa at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor
, the original "Bay of Tanpa". A later Spanish expedition did not notice Charlotte Harbor while sailing north along the west coast of Florida and assumed that the current Tampa Bay was the bay they sought. The name was accidentally transferred north.
Map makers were using the term Bay or Bahia Tampa as early as 1695.
Not much is known about the cultures who called the Tampa Bay area home before European contact. When Spanish
explorers arrived in the 1520s, they found a ring of Tocobaga
villages around the northern half of Tampa Bay from modern-day Pinellas County to Tampa and Calusa
villages along the southern portion of the bay in modern-day Manatee County.
Expeditions led by Pánfilo de Narváez
and Hernando de Soto
landed near Tampa to look for gold
and possibly start a colony
. Neither conquistador
stayed in the region for long once it became clear that the local riches were only abundant fish and shellfish. The native inhabitants, who derived most of their resources from the sea, repulsed any Spanish attempt to establish a permanent settlement or convert them to Catholicism
.
The newcomers brought a weapon against which the natives had no defense: infectious disease. Archeological evidence reveals a total collapse of the native cultures of Florida in the years after European contact. The Tampa area was depopulated and ignored for more than 200 years.
into the wilds of northern Florida. During this period, the Tampa area had only a handful of residents: Cuban
and Native American
fishermen. They lived in a small village at the mouth of Spanishtown Creek on Tampa Bay, in today’s Hyde Park
neighborhood along Bayshore Boulevard.
In 1821, the United States
purchased Florida from Spain (see Adams-Onís Treaty
), partly to reduce Indian raids, and partly to eliminate a refuge for escaped slaves from neighboring southern states. One of the first U.S. actions in its new territory was a raid which destroyed Angola, a settlement built by escaped slaves and free blacks on the eastern shore of Tampa Bay.
(1823) created a large Indian reservation
in the interior of the peninsula of Florida. As part of efforts to establish control over the vast wilderness
, the U.S. government built a series of forts and trading posts in the new territory. "Cantonment Brooke" was established on January 10, 1824, by Colonels George Mercer Brooke and James Gadsden
at the mouth of the Hillsborough River on Tampa Bay, at the site of the Tampa Convention Center
in Downtown Tampa
. On January 22, 1824, the post was officially named Fort Brooke
.
During its first decades of existence, Tampa was very much an isolated frontier outpost. The sparse civilian population practically abandoned the area when the Second Seminole War
flared up in late 1835. After almost seven years of vicious fighting, the Seminoles were forced away from the Tampa region and many settlers returned.
The Territory of Florida had grown enough by 1845 to become the 27th state.
Four years after statehood, on January 18, 1849, Tampa had also grown enough to officially incorporate as the "Village of Tampa". Tampa was home to 185 inhabitants, not including military personnel stationed at Fort Brooke. The city's first census count in 1850, however, listed Tampa-Fort Brooke
as having 974 residents, inclusive of the military personnel.
Tampa was reincorporated as a town on December 15, 1855, and Judge Joseph B. Lancaster became the first mayor in 1856.
, Florida seceded along with most of the southern states to form the Confederate States of America
. Fort Brooke was manned by Confederate troops, and martial law
was declared in Tampa in January 1862. Tampa's city government ceased to operate for the duration of the war.
In late 1861, the Union
Navy set up a blockade
around many southern ports to cut off the Confederacy from outside help, and several ships were stationed near the mouth of Tampa Bay
. Blockade runners based in Tampa were able to repeatedly slip through the blockade to trade cattle and citrus for needed supplies, mainly with Spanish Cuba.
Union gunboats sailed up Tampa Bay to bombard Fort Brooke and the surrounding city of Tampa. The Battle of Tampa
on June 30 and July 1, 1862, was inconclusive, as the shells fell ineffectually, and there were no human casualties on either side.
More damaging to the Confederate cause was the Battle of Fort Brooke
on October 17 and October 18, 1863. Two Union gunboats shelled the fort and surrounding town and landed troops, who found blockade runners hidden up the Hillsborough River
near present-day Lowry Park Zoo
and destroyed them. The local militia mustered to intercept the Union troops, but they were able to return to their ships after a short skirmish and headed back out to sea.
The war ended
in April 1865 with a Confederate defeat. In May 1865, federal troops arrived in Tampa to occupy the fort and the town as part of Reconstruction. They remained until August 1869.
epidemics borne by mosquitoes from the surrounding swampland, but the sickness was particularly widespread during the late 1860s and 1870s. The disease was little understood at the time, and many residents simply packed up and left rather than face the mysterious and deadly peril.
In 1869, residents voted to abolish the city of Tampa government. The population of "Tampa Town" was below 800 in the official 1870 census count and had fallen further by 1880 (see demographics, below).
Fort Brooke, the seed from which Tampa had germinated, had served its purpose and was decommissioned in 1883. Except for two cannon
s displayed on the nearby University of Tampa
campus, all traces of the fort are gone. A large downtown parking garage near the old fort site is called the Fort Brooke Parking Garage.
In the mid-1880s, Tampa's fortunes took several sudden turns for the better. First, phosphate
was discovered in the Bone Valley
region southeast of Tampa in 1883. The mineral, vital for the production of fertilizers and other products, was soon being shipped out from the Port of Tampa in great volume. Tampa is still a major phosphate exporter.
's railroad line reached Tampa and its port shortly thereafter, finally connecting the small town to the nation's railroad system after years of efforts by local leaders. Previously, Tampa's overland transportation links had consisted of rutted sandy roads stretching across the Florida countryside. Plant's railroad made it much easier to get goods in and out of the Tampa Bay area. Phosphate and commercial fishing
exports could be sent north and many new products were brought into the Tampa market, along with the first tourists.
to move his cigar
manufacturing operations to Tampa from Key West
. Proximity to Cuba
made importation of "clear Havana tobacco" easy by sea, and Plant's railroad made shipment of finished cigars to the rest of the US market easy by land.
Since Tampa was still a small town at the time (population less than 5000), Ybor built hundreds of small houses around his factory to accommodate the immediate influx of mainly Cuban
and Spanish
cigar workers. Ybor City's factories rolled their first cigars in 1886, and many different cigar manufacturers moved their operations to town in ensuing years. Many Italian and a few eastern European Jewish immigrants arrived starting in the late 1880s, opening businesses and shops that catered to cigar workers. By 1900, over 10,000 immigrants had moved to the neighborhood. Several thousand more Cuban immigrants built West Tampa, another cigar-centric suburb founded a few years later by Hugh MacFarlane. Between them, two "Latin" communities combined to exponentially expand Tampa's population, economic base, and tax revenues, as Tampa became the "Cigar Capital of the World".
built a lavish 500+ room, quarter-mile (400 m) long, US$2.5 million eclectic/Moorish Revival
-style luxury resort hotel called the Tampa Bay Hotel
among 150 acre (0.607029 km²) of manicured gardens along the banks of the Hillsborough River
. Plant's resort featured a race track, a heated indoor pool, a golf course, a 2000-seat auditorium, tennis courts, stables, hunting and fishing tours, and electric lights and telephones in every room, plus the first elevator in town and exotic art collectibles which Plant had shipped in from around the world.
The Tampa Bay Hotel was relatively prosperous for about a decade. The resort hosted thousands of guests and many celebrities of the era, but was only filled to capacity during the Spanish-American War
(see below). Henry Plant died in 1899, and his heirs sold the facilities to the city of Tampa in 1904. The city operated the hotel and used the grounds as a community gathering place until 1932, when the resort was closed, remodeled, and reopened as the University of Tampa
a year later.
. Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt
and his Rough Riders
were among the 30,000 troops who waited in Tampa for the order to ship out to Cuba during the summer of 1898, filling the town to bursting and delivering another huge boost to the local economy.
almost overnight, and had grown into one of the largest cities in Florida by 1900.
-making industry was the backbone of Tampa's economy. The factories in Ybor City and West Tampa made an enormous number of cigars—in the peak year of 1929, over 500,000,000 cigars were hand rolled in the city.
In 1904, a local civic association of local businessmen dubbed themselves Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla (named after local mythical pirate Jose Gaspar), and staged an "invasion" of the city followed by a parade. With a few exceptions, the Gasparilla Pirate Festival
has been held every year since.
lotteries were very popular among the Tampa working classes, especially in Ybor City. In the early 1920s, this small-time operation was taken over by Charlie Wall, the rebellious son of a prominent Tampa family, and went big-time. Bolita was able to openly thrive only because of kick-backs and bribes to key local politicians and law enforcement officials, and many were on the take.
Profits from the bolita lotteries and Prohibition
-era bootlegging led to the development of several organized crime
factions in the city. Charlie Wall was the first major boss, but various power struggles culminated in consolidation of control by Sicilian
mafioso
Santo Trafficante, Sr.
, and his faction in the 1950s. After his death in 1954 from cancer
, control passed to his son Santo Trafficante, Jr.
, who established alliances with families in New York
and extended his power throughout Florida
and into Batista
-era Cuba
.
The era of rampant and open corruption ended in the 1950s, when the Senator Kefauver's traveling organized crime hearings
came to town and were followed by the sensational misconduct trials of several local officials. Although many of the worst offenders in government and the mob were not charged, the trials helped to end the sense of lawlessness which had prevailed in Tampa for decades.
. Prior to the United States' involvement in the conflict, construction began on MacDill Field, the predecessor of present day MacDill Air Force Base
. MacDill Field served as a main base for Army Air Corps
and later Army Air Forces
operations just before and during World War II, with multiple auxiliary airfields around the Tampa Bay area and surrounding counties. At the end of the war, MacDill remained as an active military installation while the auxiliary fields reverted to civilian control. Two of these auxiliary fields would later become the present day Tampa International Airport
and St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport
. With the establishment of an independent U.S. Air Force in 1947, MacDill Field became MacDill AFB.
During the 1950s and 1960s Tampa saw record-setting population growth that has not been seen since. This amazing growth spurred major expansion of the city’s highways and bridges bringing thousands into the city and creating endless possibilities for Tampa business owners who welcomed tourists and new citizens alike into their neighborhoods. It was during this time period in the city’s history that two of the most popular tourist attractions in the area were developed – Busch Gardens
and Lowry Park. Many of the well-known institutions that play an important role in the economic development of the city were established during this time period.
In 1956, the University of South Florida
was established in North Tampa, spurring major development in this section of the city and offering many new job opportunities. Tampa continued to expand as new hospitals, schools, churches and subdivisions all began appearing to accommodate the growth. Many business offices began moving away from the traditional downtown office building into more convenient neighborhood office plazas.
Four attempts have been made to consolidate the municipal government of the city of Tampa with the county government of Hillsborough County (1967, 1970, 1971, and 1972), all of which failed at the ballot box; the greatest loss was also the most recent attempt in 1972, with the final tally being 33,160 (31%) in favor and 73,568 (69%) against the proposed charter.
The biggest recent growth in the city was the development of New Tampa, which started in 1988 when the city annexed a mostly rural area of 24 square miles (62.2 km²) between I-275
and I-75
.
East Tampa, historically a mostly black community, was the scene of several riots
during and for some time after the period of racial segregation, mainly due to problems between residents and the Tampa Police Department.
at 27°58′15"N 82°27′53"W (27.970898, -82.464640).
, the city has a total area of 170.6 square miles (441.9 km²), of which 112.1 square miles (290.3 km²) is land and 58.5 square miles (151.5 km²) (34.31%) is water. The highest point in the city is only 48 feet (14.6 m). Tampa is bordered by two bodies of water, Old Tampa Bay and Hillsborough Bay
, both of which flow together to form Tampa Bay
, which in turn flows into the Gulf of Mexico
. The Hillsborough River
flows out into Hillsborough Bay, passing directly in front of Downtown Tampa and supplying Tampa with its main source of fresh water. Palm River is a smaller river flowing from just east of the city into McKay Bay, which is a smaller inlet, sited at the northeast end of Hillsborough Bay Tampa's cartography is marked by the Interbay Peninsula which divides Hillsborough Bay (the eastern) from Old Tampa Bay (the western).
Tampa has a humid subtropical climate
(Köppen
Cfa), with hot summer days, frequent thunderstorms in the summer (rain is less frequent in the fall and winter), and a threat of a light winter freeze from November 15 through March 5 caused by occasional cold fronts from the north, and even then not every year. Since Tampa has some characteristics of a tropical climate, hard freezes happen rarely (every 15 to 20 years). Tampa is listed as USDA zone 10, which is about the northern limit of where coconut palms and royal palms can be grown. Average highs range from 70 to 90 °F (21.1 to 32.2 C) year round, and lows 52 to 76 °F (11.1 to 24.4 C).
While it may surprise anyone who has suffered the area's intense summer heat, Tampa's official recorded high has never hit 100 °F (37.8 °C) - the all-time record high temperature is 99 °F (37 °C), recorded on June 5, 1985.
Temperatures are hot from around mid-April through mid-October, which coincides approximately with the rainy season. Summertime weather is very consistent, with highs near 90°F (32-34 °C), lows in the mid-70s °F (23-24 °C), and high humidity
. Afternoon thunderstorms, usually generated by the interaction of the Gulf
and Atlantic
sea breeze
s, are such a regular occurrence during the summer that the Tampa Bay area is recognized as the "Lightning Capital of North America
". Every year, Florida averages 10 deaths and 30 injuries from lightning strikes, with several of these usually occurring in or around Tampa.
In the winter, average temperatures range from the low to mid 70s during the day to the low to mid 50s at night. However, sustained colder air from Canada pushes into the area on several occasions every winter, dropping the highs and lows to 15 degrees below the average (or even colder) for several days at a time before seasonal average temperatures return. The temperature falls below freezing an average of 2 to 3 times per year, though this does not occur every season. Since the Tampa area is home to a diverse range of freeze-sensitive agriculture
and aquaculture
, hard freezes, although very infrequent, are a major concern. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Tampa was 18 °F (-8 °C) on December 13, 1962.
In the Great Blizzard of 1899
, Tampa experienced its one and only known blizzard
, with "bay effect" snow
coming off Tampa Bay. The last measurable snow in Tampa fell on January 19, 1977. The accumulation amounted to all of 0.2 inch (0.508 cm), but the city, unprepared for and unaccustomed to wintry weather, came to a virtual standstill for a day. Three major freezes occurred in the 1980s: in January 1982
, January 1985
, and December 1989. The losses suffered by farmers forced many to sell off their citrus groves, which helped fuel a boom in subdivision development in the 1990s and 2000s.
s, Tampa has a pronounced wet season, receiving an average of 26.1 inches (663 mm) of rain from June to September but only about 18.6 inches (472 mm) during the remaining eight months of the year. The historical averages during the late summer, especially September, are augmented by passing tropical systems, which can easily dump many inches of rain in one day. Outside of the summer rainy season, most of the area's precipitation is delivered by the occasional passage of a weather front
.
, displays Post-modern architecture, while the city hall and the Tampa Theatre
belong to Art Deco
architecture.
The Tampa mayor as of 2008, Pam Iorio
, has made the redevelopment of Tampa's downtown
, especially bringing in residents to the decidedly non-residential area, a priority. Several residential and mixed-development high-rises are in various stages of planning or construction, and a few have already opened. Another of Mayor Iorio's initiatives is the Tampa Riverwalk, a plan which intends to make better use of the land along the Hillsborough River in downtown where Tampa began. Several museums are part of the plan, including new homes for the Tampa Bay History Center, the Tampa Children's Museum, and the Tampa Museum of Art
.
Tampa is the site of several skyscraper
s. Overall, there are 18 completed buildings that rise over 250 feet (76 m) high. The city also has 69 high-rises, more than any other city in Florida after Miami
. The tallest building in the city is 100 North Tampa
, formerly the AmSouth Building, which rises 42 floors
and 579 feet (176 m) in Downtown Tampa. The structure was completed in 1992, and is the tallest building in Florida outside of Miami and Jacksonville
.
, New Tampa, West Tampa
, East Tampa, North Tampa, and South Tampa
. Well-known communities include Ybor City, Forest Hills, Ballast Point, Sulphur Springs, Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights, Palma Ceia, Hyde Park, Davis Islands, Tampa Palms, College Hill, and non-residential areas of Gary and the Westshore Business District
.
The Sulphur Springs Water Tower
, a landmark in Sulphur Springs
section of the city, dates back to the late 1920s. This boom period for Florida
also saw the construction of an ornate movie palace
, the Tampa Theatre
, a Mediterranean revival on Davis Islands, and Bayshore Boulevard, which borders Hillsborough Bay from downtown Tampa
to areas in South Tampa. The road has a 6 miles (9.7 km) continuous sidewalk on the eastern end, the longest in the
world.
The Ybor City District
is home to several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places
and has been declared a National Historic Landmark
. Notable structures include El Centro Español
and other social clubs built in the early 1900s.
Babe Zaharias Golf Course in the Forest Hills
area of Tampa has been designated a Historical Landmark by the National Register of Historic Places
. It was bought in 1949 by the famous 'Babe'
, who had a residence nearby, and closed upon her death. In 1974, the city of Tampa opened the golf course to the public.
The Story of Tampa, a public painting by Lynn Ash, is a 4' × 8' oil on masonite mural that weaves together many of the notable aspects of Tampa's unique character and identity. It was commissioned in 2003 by the city's Public Art Program and can be found in the lobby of the Tampa Municipal Office Building.
Park Tower
(originally the First Financial Bank of Florida) is the first substantial skyscraper in downtown Tampa. Completed in 1973, it was the tallest skyscraper in Tampa until the completion of One Tampa City Center in 1981. The Rivergate building, a cylindrical building known as the "Beer Can building", was featured in the movie "The Punisher"
.
Spanning the southern part of Tampa Bay, is the massive steel-span Sunshine Skyway Bridge
.
, who took office on April 1, 2011.
The City Council
is a legislative body served by seven members, in which four are elected from specific areas of town and the other three are "at-large
" (serving citywide).
, officially known as the School District of Hillsborough County (SDHC). It is ranked the eighth largest school district in the United States
, with around 189,469 enrolled students. SDHC runs 208 schools, 133 being elementary, 42 middle, 27 High Schools, two K-8's, and four career centers. There are 73 additional schools in the district that are charter, ESE, alternative, etc. Twelve out of 25 high schools in the SDHC are included in Newsweek
s list of America's Best High Schools.
.
(USF), a member of the State University System of Florida
founded in 1956. In 2010, it was the eleventh highest individual campus enrollment in the US with over 46,000 students. Its mascot is Rocky The Bull
, with green and gold as his colors. The University of Tampa
(UT) is a private, four-year liberal arts institution
. Founded in 1931 and located across the Hillsborough River
from downtown Tampa, UT has over 6,500 students attending. Its mascot is the Sparta
n, with scarlet
, black
, and gold
as its school colors. Hillsborough Community College
is a two-year community college
in the Florida College System with campuses in Tampa and Hillsborough County.
Other colleges and universities in the wider Tampa Bay Area include Eckerd College
and St. Petersburg College
in St. Petersburg.
Service, retail
, finance, insurance
, shipping
by air and sea, national defense
, professional sports
, tourism
and real estate
all play a vital role in the area's economy. Hillsborough County alone has an estimated 740,000 employees, a figure which is projected to increase to 922,000 by 2015. Many corporations, such as large banks and telecommunications companies, maintain regional offices in Tampa. Several Fortune 1000
companies are headquartered in the metropolitan area, including OSI Restaurant Partners, WellCare Health Plans, Inc., TECO Energy, and Raymond James Financial. MacDill Air Force Base
also remains a major employer as the parent installation for over 15,000 active uniformed military, Department of Defense
(DoD) civil service and DoD contractor personnel in the Tampa Bay area. A significant majority of the civil service and contractor personnel are, in fact, themselves retired career military personnel. In addition to the 6th Air Mobility Wing
, which is "host wing" for the base, MacDill is also home to Headquarters, United States Central Command
(USCENTCOM), Headquarters, United States Special Operations Command
(USSOCOM), the 927th Air Refueling Wing
, Headquarters, United States Marine Forces Central Command
(USMARCENT), Headquarters, United States Special Operations Command Central
(USSOCCENT), and numerous other military activities of the active and reserve components of the armed forces.
Downtown Tampa is undergoing significant development and redevelopment in line with a general national trend toward urban residential development. The Tampa Downtown Partnership notes development proceeding on 20 residential, hotel, and mixed-use projects as of April 2007. Many of the new downtown developments are nearing completion in the midst of a housing market slump, which has caused numerous projects to be delayed or revamped, and some of the 20 projects TDP lists have not broken ground and are being refinanced. Nonetheless several developments are nearing completion, which city leaders hope will make downtown into a 24-hour neighborhood instead of 9 to 5 business district. As it stands, Tampa residents face a decline in rent which has decreased an average of 2% next year. Nationally rent has decreased 4%.
Tampa's port is now the seventh largest in the nation and Florida’s largest tonnage port, handling nearly half of all seaborne commerce that passes through the state. Tampa currently ranks second in the state behind Miami in terms of cruise ship travel. Besides smaller regional cruise ships such as Yacht Starship and SunCruz Casino, Tampa also serves as a port of call for three cruise lines: Holland America's MS Veendam, Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas, and Carnival's Legend and Inspiration.
The main server farm
for Wikipedia
and other Wikimedia Foundation
projects is located in Tampa.
and The St. Petersburg Times
. La Gaceta is the nation's only trilingual newspaper, written in English, Spanish and Italian. There is also a wide variety of smaller regional newspapers, alternative weeklies and magazines, including the Florida Sentinel Bulletin
, Creative Loafing
, Reax Music Magazine
, Tampa Bay Times, The Oracle
, Tampa Bay Business Journal and MacDill Thunderbolt. Major television affiliates include WFTS 28 (ABC
), WTSP
10 (CBS
), WFLA
8 (NBC
), WTVT
13 (Fox
), WTOG
44 (The CW
), WTTA
38 (MyNetworkTV
) and WVEA
62 (Univision
).
. The water is mainly supplied by the Hillsborough River
, which in turn arises from the Green Swamp
, but several other rivers and desalination
plants in the area contribute to the supply. Power is mainly generated by TECO Energy.
Phone service is provided by Verizon and Bright House Networks
. Cable TV and internet are also provided by these companies.
s cross Tampa Bay
to Pinellas County
: the Howard Frankland Bridge
(I-275
), the Courtney Campbell Causeway (SR-60) and the Gandy Bridge
(US 92). The old Gandy Bridge was completely replaced by new spans during the 1990s, but a span of the old bridge was saved and converted into a pedestrian and biking bridge renamed The Friendship Trail. It is the longest overwater recreation trail in the world. However, the bridge was closed in 2008 due to structural problems.
There are two major expressways (toll) bringing traffic in and out of Tampa. The Lee Roy Selmon Expressway (SR-618) (formerly known as the Crosstown Expressway), runs from suburban Brandon
at its eastern terminus, through Downtown Tampa, to the neighborhoods in South Tampa (near MacDill Air Force Base
) at its western terminus. The Veterans Expressway (SR-589), meanwhile connects Tampa International Airport
and the bay bridges to the northwestern suburbs of Carrollwood
, Northdale
, Westchase
, Citrus Park
, Cheval
, and Lutz
, before continuing north as the Suncoast Parkway into Pasco
and Hernando
counties.
Three interstate highways
run through the city. Interstate 4
and Interstate 275
cut across the city and intersect near downtown. Interstate 75
runs along the east side of town for much of its route through Hillsborough County
until veering to the west to bisect New Tampa.
Along with highways, major surface roads serves as main arteries of the city. These roads are Hillsborough Avenue
(US 92
& US 41), Dale Mabry Highway
(US 92
), Nebraska Avenue (US 41), Florida Avenue (US 41 Business), Bruce B. Downs Boulevard
, Fowler Avenue, Busch Boulevard, Kennedy Boulevard, Adamo Drive, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
, a status gained just ten years after the Wright Brothers
first took flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On January 1, 1914, pioneering aviator Tony Jannus
captained the inaugural flight of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line
, the world's first commercial passenger airline
. The airline flew scheduled flights from downtown St. Petersburg, Florida
, across the bay to just south of where Tampa International Airport
sits today, carrying just the pilot and a single passenger in a flying boat biplane. The airline's historic significance is officially recognized by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
, and its pilot is memorialized annually by the awarding of the Tony Jannus Award
to individuals of outstanding achievement in scheduled commercial aviation
. A permanent exhibit honoring the award recipients is maintained at Tampa International Airport, which also hosts a 12.5 feet (3.8 m) painted mural
from the 1930s titled, History’s First Scheduled Airline Passenger Arrives in Tampa, depicting the events of New Year's Day, 1914.
was established by Plant System
corporate descendant, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
, in the industrial sector on Tampa's east side, between Gary
and Brandon
. It continues to service CSX as a storage and intermodal freight transport
facility today. Freight and container
cargo operations at the city's seaports also depend upon dockside rail facilities.
Since 1912, Tampa's intercity passenger rail service has been based at Tampa Union Station. The historic facility, adjacent to downtown between the Channel District and Ybor City
, is served by Amtrak
today. Amtrak's Silver Star calls on Tampa twice daily: number 91 southbound to Miami
and number 92 northbound for New York City
.
Union Station also serves as the transfer hub for Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach service, offering bus connections to several cities in Southwest Florida
, as well as to Orlando
for transfers to the northbound Silver Meteor
.
Tampa was to be the site of a high speed rail line which would have run between downtown and the Orlando area, and eventually to Miami and southern Florida. Construction of the line was slated to begin in 2011, with the initial phase completed by 2014. Governor Scott, however, cancelled the plan in March 2011.
In 1899, however, the US Congress authorized the dredging of a 27' deep channel to Port Tampa, Henry Plant's rail-to-ship facility just west of Tampa. In 1917, another channel was dredged out to the Port of Tampa
proper, instantly making Tampa an important shipping location.
The bay bottom is very sandy, and the ship channels need constant dredging to keep them navigable to the largest modern cargo ships. Every year, the US Army Corps of Engineers dredge up enough sediment from the bay to fill Raymond James Stadium
10 times.
Today, the Port of Tampa is the largest port in Florida in throughput tonnage, making it one of the busiest commercial ports in North America. Petroleum and phosphate are the lead commodities, accounting for two-thirds of the 37 million tons of total bulk and general cargo handled by the port in 2009.
The Tampa Port Authority currently operates three cruise ship
terminals in Tampa's Channel District
. The Port of Tampa is the year-round home port for Carnival Cruise Lines
' MS Carnival Inspiration and MS Carnival Legend
. In 2010, Tampa will also be a seasonal port for Holland America Line
's MS Ryndam
, as well as Royal Caribbean International
's MS Grandeur of the Seas and MS Radiance of the Seas. A fourth company, Norwegian Cruise Line
, has announced plans to sail out of Tampa for the first time. The 2,240 passenger MS Norwegian Star will be Tampa's largest cruise ship when it debuts a seasonal schedule in 2011. Cruise itineraries from Tampa include stops in the Eastern and Western Caribbean
islands, Honduras
, Belize
, and Mexico
.
(HART), and includes public bus
and paratransit
service, as well as a streetcar line. The HART bus system's main hub is the Marion Transit Center in Downtown Tampa
, serving nearly 30 local and express routes. HART has a signed transit deal with the University of South Florida
, allowing students to ride for free on most bus routes, while students from other schools may receive discounted fares.
In October, 2002, the TECO Line Streetcar System
brought electric streetcar service back to Tampa for the first time in over half a century. The line operates from ten stations along a 2.4-mile (3.9-km) route, connecting Ybor City, the Channel District
, the Tampa Convention Center
, and downtown Tampa. Work is currently underway to extend the line along Franklin Street to the Fort Brooke Parking Garage by December 2010. The TECO Line fleet features varnished wood interiors and other appointments reminiscent of the streetcars that traversed Tampa between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries. The nostalgic design is incorporated with modern functionality, as the cars are both wheelchair accessible and air conditioned.
Limited transportation by privately-operated "Neighborhood Electric Vehicle
s" (NEV) is available, primarily in Downtown Tampa and Ybor City. Water taxi
s are available on a charter basis for tours along the downtown waterfront and the Hillsborough River. Regular water taxi service may be possible in the future as docks and facilities are developed in conjunction with the Tampa Riverwalk.
In July 2007, the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority
(TBARTA) was formed to develop bus, light rail
, and other transportation options for the seven-county Tampa Bay area
.
base for B-47 and B-52 bombers. In the 1960s, it transitioned to a Tactical Air Command
installation for F-4 Phantom II
fighters, followed by F-16s in the 1980s. It is currently an Air Mobility Command
installation, home to the 6th Air Mobility Wing
, and includes both the 310th Airlift Squadron, flying the C-37, and the 91st Air Refueling Squadron, flying the KC-135. MacDill AFB is also home to the headquarters for two of the U.S. military's joint warfighting commands: Headquarters, United States Central Command
(CENTCOM), and Headquarters, United States Special Operations Command
(SOCOM). Both commands are independent from one another and each is commanded by a respective 4-star general or admiral. Like Tampa's seaport, MacDill AFB could also potentially be a target for terrorism.
The MacDill AFB flight line was temporarily closed and the 56th Fighter Wing
transferred to Luke AFB, Arizona
following the 1991 round of base closings under the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) discussions; at the time, the base was used for F-16 fighter training and operations and increasing level of civilian air traffic in the Tampa Bay area was considered detrimental to training. The noise produced by the fighter aircraft was also considered inappropriate in a densely populated area. However, despite committee recommendations, the base remained open to house and support CENTCOM and SOCOM under the cognizance of the newly-activated 6th Air Base Wing. With the disestablishment of Tactical Air Command a few months later, claimancy for MacDill passed to the newly-created Air Combat Command
.
The MacDill flight line was initially reopened in 1992 to temporarily support F-16 aircraft from the 31st Fighter Wing
and the Air Force Reserve's 482d Fighter Wing
, following the destruction of their home station, Homestead AFB, Florida in the wake of Hurricane Andrew
. In 1993, the MacDill flightline was permanently reopened for NOAA WP-3D "hurricane hunter" operations, which had relocated from Miami International Airport
.
In 1996, the 91st Air Refueling Squadron moved to MacDill from Malmstrom Air Force Base
, Montana
, the 6th Air Base Wing was renamed the 6th Air Refueling Wing (later 6th Air Mobility Wing
) and the installation officially came under the Air Mobility Command
.
Approximately 14,000 people work at MacDill Air Force Base, with a significant number of military personnel and their families living on base in military housing, while remaining servicemembers and military families live off base in the Tampa Bay area. MacDill AFB is a significant contributor to Tampa's economy and the city is very supportive of the military community. In 2001 and 2003, the Tampa Bay area was awarded the Abilene Trophy
, which annually honors the most supportive Air Force city in Air Mobility Command
.
MacDill also hosts an annual air show that is enjoyed by thousands of spectators each year. However, there were no shows in 2002 and 2003 due to 9/11. The 2006 show was also canceled due to security concerns on base, but was reinstated in 2008. In 2008, pursuant to BRAC 2005, the Air Force Reserve Command
's 927th Air Refueling Wing
(927 ARW) relocated without aircraft or equipment from Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan to MacDill AFB, where it became an "Associate" wing to the 6th Air Mobility Wing
sharing the same KC-135R Stratotanker
aircraft.
, Gorilla Theatre
, and just east of the city, the 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre.
Performing arts companies and organizations which call Tampa home include The Florida Orchestra
, Opera Tampa
, Jobsite Theater
, The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, Stageworks Theatre
, Spanish Lyric Theater, and the Tampa Bay Symphony.
Current popular nightlife districts include Channelside, Ybor City
, SoHo
, International Plaza and Bay Street
, and Seminole Hard Rock
. Downtown Tampa
also contains some nightlife, and there are more clubs/bars to be found in other areas of the city. Tampa is rated sixth on Maxim magazine
's list of top party cities.
The area has become a "de-facto" headquarters of professional wrestling
, with many pros living in the area. WWE's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling
, is also based in Tampa.
Tampa is home to several death metal
bands, an extreme form of heavy metal music
that evolved from thrash metal
. Many of the genre's pioneers and foremost figures are based in and around the city. Chief among these are Cannibal Corpse
, Deicide
, Six Feet Under
, Obituary
and Morbid Angel
. The Tampa scene grew with the birth of Morrisound Recording
, which established itself as an international recording destination for metal bands.
The underground rock band, the Baskervils, got their start in Tampa. They played the Tampa Bay area between 1994–1997 and then moved to New York City
. Underground Hip-Hop
group Equilibrium is based out of Tampa, as well as the Christian
metalcore
band, Underoath
.
In 2009, the new Frank Wildhorn
musical Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure
hosted its world premiere at the Straz Center.
in Florida and a planetarium
; the Tampa Museum of Art
; the USF Contemporary Art Museum; the Tampa Bay History Center
; the Tampa Firefighters Museum; the Henry B. Plant Museum
; and Ybor City Museum State Park
. Permanently docked in downtown's Channel District is the SS American Victory
, a former World War II
Victory Ship
which is now a used as a museum ship
.
The city of Tampa operates over 165 parks and beaches covering 2286 acres (9.3 km²) within city limits; 42 more in surrounding suburbs covering 70000 acres (283.3 km²), are maintained by Hillsborough County. These areas include the Hillsborough River State Park
, just northeast of the city. Tampa is also home to a number of attractions and theme parks, including Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Adventure Island
, Lowry Park Zoo
, and Florida Aquarium
.
Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo
features over 2,000 animals, interactive exhibits, rides, educational shows and more. The zoo serves as an economic, cultural, environmental and educational anchor in Tampa.
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is a 335 acres (1.4 km²) Africa-themed park located near the University of South Florida
. It features many thrilling roller coasters, for which it is known, including Sheikra. Visitors can also view and interact with a number of African wildlife.
Adventure Island
is a 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) water park adjacent to Busch Gardens. It features many water rides, dining, and other attractions typical to a water park.
The Florida Aquarium
is a 250000 sq ft (23,225.8 m²) aquarium located in the Channel District of Tampa. It hosts over 20,000 species of aquatic plants and animals. It is known for its unique glass architecture. Adjacent to the Aquarium is the SS American Victory, a World War II
Victory ship
preserved as a museum ship
.
The Tampa Bay History Center
is a museum of Tampa Bay History located in the Channel District, Tampa, Florida of Tampa. It boasts over 60000 sq ft (5,574.2 m²) of exhibits through 12,000 years.
Theaters, map gallery, research center and museum store.
Well-known shopping areas include International Plaza and Bay Street
, WestShore Plaza
, SoHo district
, and Hyde Park Village
. Palma Ceia
is also home to a shopping district, called Palma Ceia Design District. Previously, Tampa had also been home to the Floriland Mall (now an office park), Tampa Bay Center (demolished and replaced with the new Tampa Bay Buccaneers
training facility, known as "One Buc Place"), and East Lake Square Mall (now an office park).
, a mock pirate invasion held since 1904 in late January or early February. Often referred to as Tampa's "Mardi Gras
", the invasion flotilla led by the pirate ship, Jose Gasparilla, and subsequent parade draw over 400,000 attendees, contributing tens of millions of dollars to the city's economy. Beyond the initial invasion, numerous Gasparilla festivities take place each year between January and March, including the Gasparilla Children's Parade, the more adult-oriented Sant'Yago Knight Parade
, the Gasparilla Distance Classic
, Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, and the Gasparilla International Film Festival
, among other pirate themed events.
Other notable events include the Outback Bowl
, which is held New Year's Day at Raymond James Stadium
. Each February, The Florida State Fair
brings crowds from across the state, while "Fiesta Day" celebrates Tampa's Cuban, German, Italian, African-Cuban, Jewish and Spanish immigrant heritage. In April the MacDill Air Fest entertains as one of the largest military air shows in the U.S.. Guavaween
, a nighttime street celebration infuses Halloween
with the Latin flavor of Ybor City. Ybor also hosts "GaYbor Days", an annual street party in the GLBT-friendly GaYbor
district. The Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
, held annually since 1989, is the city's largest film festival event, and one of the largest independent gay film festivals in the country.
congregation established the city's first church
, to 1939, when a 21-year old Billy Graham
began his career as a spiritual evangelist and preacher on downtown's Franklin Street, and through to today. Among Tampa's noteworthy religious structures are Sacred Heart Catholic Church, a 1905 downtown landmark noted for its soaring, Romanesque revival
construction in granite and marble with German
-crafted stained glass
windows, the distinctive rock and mortar St. James Episcopal House of Prayer
, listed with the U.S. historic registry
, and the St. Paul A.M.E. church, which has seen the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and President Bill Clinton
speak from its pulpit. The later two have been designated by the city government as Local Landmark Structures.
Tampa's religious community includes a broad representation of Christian denomination
s, including those above, and Presbyterian
, Lutheran
, Christian Science
, Church of God
, United Church of Christ
, Unitarian Universalist, Metropolitan Community Church
, Seventh-day Adventist
, Eastern Orthodox (Greek
, Coptic
, Syrian
, and OCA
), various Pentecostal
movements, Anglicans, the Quakers, Jehovah's Witnesses
, and the Mormons
. Tampa also has several Jewish
synagogues practicing Orthodox
, Conservative
, and Reform
.
Around the city are located a handful of mosques for followers of Islam
, as well as a Tibetan-style
Buddhist
temple
, a Thai Buddhist
Wat
, and local worship centers for the Hindu
and Bahá'í faiths. The Church of Scientology
, based in nearby Clearwater
, maintains a location for its congregants in Tampa.
. The NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers
and the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning
call Tampa home, while the Tampa Bay Rays
of Major League Baseball
play across the bay in St. Petersburg
. As indicated by their names, these teams, plus several other sports teams, represent the entire Tampa Bay metropolitan area
. In addition to these teams, the Orlando Magic
of the NBA play about an hour and a half away from the Tampa area.
As of 2000, the largest ancestries are German (9.2%), Irish
(8.4%), English
(7.7%), Italian
(5.6%), and French
(2.4%).
As of 2010, there were 157,130 households out of which 13.5% were vacant. In 2000, 27.6% households had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.4% were married couples
living together, 16.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.9% were non-families. 33.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 3.07.
In 2000, the city's population was spread out with 24.6% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 32.3% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34.7 years old. For every 100 females there were 95.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.1 males.
In 2006, the median income for a household in the city was $39,602, and the median income for a family was $45,823. Males had a median income of $40,461 versus $29,868 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $26,522. 20.1% of the population and 16.4% of families were below the poverty line. 31% of those under the age of 18 and 13.6% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty level.
As of 2000, English
spoken as a first language
accounted for 77.43% of all residents, while 22.56% spoke other languages as their mother tongue. The most significant was Spanish
speakers who made up 17.76% of the population, while French
came up as the third most spoken language, which made up 0.63%, and Italian
was at fourth, with 0.56% of the population.
A 2006 study by UCLA suggests that Tampa has one of the highest GLBT
populations per capita with 6.1% of citizens polled identifying as gay
, lesbian
, bisexual or transexual. The Tampa Bay metropolitan area
also ranks 5th of all major metropolitan areas with 5.9% being GLBT.
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
of Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
. It serves as the county seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
for Hillsborough County
Hillsborough County, Florida
As of the census of 2000, there were 998,948 people, 391,357 households, and 255,164 families residing in the county. The population density was 951 people per square mile . There were 425,962 housing units at an average density of 405 per square mile...
. Tampa is located on the west coast of Florida. The population of Tampa in 2010 was 335,709.
The current location of Tampa was once inhabited by various indigenous cultures, most recently the Tocobaga
Tocobaga
Tocobaga was the name of a chiefdom, its chief and its principal town during the 16th century in the area of Tampa Bay. The town was at the northern end of what is now called Old Tampa Bay, an arm of Tampa Bay that extends northward between the present-day city of Tampa and Pinellas County...
. It was spotted by Spanish explorers in the early 16th century, but there were no permanent American or European settlements in the area until 1824, when the US Army established a frontier outpost called Fort Brooke
Fort Brooke
Fort Brooke was a historical military post situated on the east bank of the Hillsborough River in present-day Tampa, Florida. The Tampa Convention Center currently stands at the site.-Fort Brooke as a military outpost:...
at the site of today's Tampa Convention Center
Tampa Convention Center
The Tampa Convention Center is a mid-sized convention center located in Downtown Tampa, Florida. Its location has both waterfront views and views of the skyline. In 2006, a 20-story Embassy Suites hotel opened next door, with a skybridge connecting it to the convention center. Harbour Island is...
. The village of Tampa began as a small group of pioneers who settled near the fort for protection from the Seminole
Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...
population in the area.
Today, Tampa is a part of the metropolitan area most commonly referred to as the Tampa Bay Area
Tampa Bay Area
The Tampa Bay Area is the region of west central Florida adjacent to Tampa Bay. Definitions of the region vary. It is often considered equivalent to the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area defined by the United States Census Bureau. The Census Bureau currently...
. For U.S. Census purposes, Tampa is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida MSA. The four-county area is composed of roughly 2.7 million residents, making it the second largest metropolitan statistical area
United States metropolitan area
In the United States a metropolitan statistical area is a geographical region with a relatively high population density at its core and close economic ties throughout the area. Such regions are not legally incorporated as a city or town would be, nor are they legal administrative divisions like...
(MSA) in the state, and the fourth largest in the Southeastern United States
Southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, colloquially referred to as the Southeast, is the eastern portion of the Southern United States. It is one of the most populous regions in the United States of America....
, behind Miami, Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, and Atlanta. The Greater Tampa Bay area has just over 4 million residents and generally includes the Tampa and Sarasota metro areas. The Tampa Bay Partnership and U.S. Census data showed an average annual growth of 2.47 percent, or a gain of approximately 97,000 residents per year. Between 2000 and 2006, the Greater Tampa Bay Market experienced a combined growth rate of 14.8 percent, growing from 3.4 million to 3.9 million and hitting the 4 million people mark on April 1, 2007.
Tampa has a number of sports teams, such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football franchise based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League – they are the only team in the division not to come from the old NFC West...
of the NFL
National Football League
The National Football League is the highest level of professional American football in the United States, and is considered the top professional American football league in the world. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association, with the league changing...
, the Tampa Bay Lightning
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . They have one Stanley Cup championship in their history, in 2003–04. They are often referred to as the...
of the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
, the Tampa Bay Storm
Tampa Bay Storm
The Tampa Bay Storm are an Arena Football League team based in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. They play their home games in the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa....
of the Arena Football League
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League is the highest level of professional indoor American football in the United States. It is currently the second longest running professional football league in the United States, after the National Football League. It was founded in 1987 by Jim Foster...
and the FC Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League (2010)
North American Soccer League (2010)
The North American Soccer League is a professional men's soccer league in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico which began league play on April 9, 2011. It has been provisionally sanctioned as the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer pyramid, behind Major League Soccer in the...
. The Tampa Bay Rays
Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays are a Major League Baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of MLB's American League. Since their inception in , the club has played at Tropicana Field...
in Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
, are actually based in neighboring St. Petersburg, Florida.
In 2008, Tampa was ranked as the 5th best outdoor city by Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
. A 2004 survey by the NYU
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
newspaper Washington Square News
Washington Square News
The Washington Square News is the daily student newspaper of New York University and serves the NYU, Greenwich Village, and East Village communities. The paper, better known as WSN, has a circulation of 10,000 and an estimated 65,000 readers online...
ranked Tampa as a top city for "twenty-somethings." Tampa is now ranked as a "Gamma" world city by Loughborough University
Loughborough University
Loughborough University is a research based campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England...
. According to Loughborough, Tampa ranks alongside other world cities such as Phoenix
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
, Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
, and Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
. In recent years Tampa has seen a notable upsurge in high-market demand from consumers, signaling more wealth concentrated in the area. Tampa has been tapped to host the 2012 Republican National Convention
2012 Republican National Convention
The United States 2012 Republican National Convention, in which delegates of the Republican Party will choose the party's nominees for President of the United States and Vice President of the United States, will be held during the week of August 27, 2012, in Tampa, Florida at the St...
.
Name
The word "Tampa" may mean "sticks of fire" in the language of the CalusaCalusa
The Calusa were a Native American people who lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region; at the time of European contact, the Calusa were the people of the Caloosahatchee culture...
, a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribe that once lived south of today’s Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay."Tampa Bay" is not the name of any municipality...
. This might be a reference to the many lightning strikes that the area receives during the summer months. Other historians claim the name means "the place to gather sticks".
Toponymist
Toponymy
Toponymy is the scientific study of place names , their origins, meanings, use and typology. The word "toponymy" is derived from the Greek words tópos and ónoma . Toponymy is itself a branch of onomastics, the study of names of all kinds...
George R. Stewart
George R. Stewart
George Rippey Stewart was an American toponymist, a novelist, and a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley...
writes that the name was the result of a miscommunication between the Spanish and the Indians, the Indian word being "itimpi", meaning simply "near it". The name first appears in the "Memoir" of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda
Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda
Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda was a Spanish shipwreck survivor who lived among the Indians of Florida for 17 years...
(1575), who had spent 17 years as a Calusa captive. He calls it "Tanpa" and describes it as an important Calusa town. While "Tanpa" may be the basis for the modern name "Tampa", archaeologist Jerald Milanich places the Calusa village of Tanpa at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor
Charlotte Harbor (estuary)
Charlotte Harbor Estuary is a natural estuary spanning the west coast of Florida from Venice to Bonita Springs on the Gulf of Mexico and is one of the most productive wetlands in Florida...
, the original "Bay of Tanpa". A later Spanish expedition did not notice Charlotte Harbor while sailing north along the west coast of Florida and assumed that the current Tampa Bay was the bay they sought. The name was accidentally transferred north.
Map makers were using the term Bay or Bahia Tampa as early as 1695.
Early explorations
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
explorers arrived in the 1520s, they found a ring of Tocobaga
Tocobaga
Tocobaga was the name of a chiefdom, its chief and its principal town during the 16th century in the area of Tampa Bay. The town was at the northern end of what is now called Old Tampa Bay, an arm of Tampa Bay that extends northward between the present-day city of Tampa and Pinellas County...
villages around the northern half of Tampa Bay from modern-day Pinellas County to Tampa and Calusa
Calusa
The Calusa were a Native American people who lived on the coast and along the inner waterways of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region; at the time of European contact, the Calusa were the people of the Caloosahatchee culture...
villages along the southern portion of the bay in modern-day Manatee County.
Expeditions led by Pánfilo de Narváez
Narváez expedition
The Narváez expedition was a Spanish attempt during the years 1527–1528 to colonize Spanish Florida. It was led by Pánfilo de Narváez, who was to rule as adelantado....
and Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto (explorer)
Hernando de Soto was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who, while leading the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States, was the first European documented to have crossed the Mississippi River....
landed near Tampa to look for gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and possibly start a colony
Colony
In politics and history, a colony is a territory under the immediate political control of a state. For colonies in antiquity, city-states would often found their own colonies. Some colonies were historically countries, while others were territories without definite statehood from their inception....
. Neither conquistador
Conquistador
Conquistadors were Spanish soldiers, explorers, and adventurers who brought much of the Americas under the control of Spain in the 15th to 16th centuries, following Europe's discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus in 1492...
stayed in the region for long once it became clear that the local riches were only abundant fish and shellfish. The native inhabitants, who derived most of their resources from the sea, repulsed any Spanish attempt to establish a permanent settlement or convert them to Catholicism
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...
.
The newcomers brought a weapon against which the natives had no defense: infectious disease. Archeological evidence reveals a total collapse of the native cultures of Florida in the years after European contact. The Tampa area was depopulated and ignored for more than 200 years.
Seasonal residents and U.S. control
In the mid-18th century, events in American colonies drove the Seminole IndiansSeminole
The Seminole are a Native American people originally of Florida, who now reside primarily in that state and Oklahoma. The Seminole nation emerged in a process of ethnogenesis out of groups of Native Americans, most significantly Creeks from what is now Georgia and Alabama, who settled in Florida in...
into the wilds of northern Florida. During this period, the Tampa area had only a handful of residents: Cuban
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
and Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
fishermen. They lived in a small village at the mouth of Spanishtown Creek on Tampa Bay, in today’s Hyde Park
Hyde Park, Tampa, Florida
Hyde Park is an historic neighborhood and district located within the city limits of Tampa. The ZIP code for the district is 33606.-Description:Hyde Park is located adjacent to the University of Tampa and Downtown...
neighborhood along Bayshore Boulevard.
In 1821, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
purchased Florida from Spain (see Adams-Onís Treaty
Adams-Onís Treaty
The Adams–Onís Treaty of 1819, also known as the Transcontinental Treaty or the Purchase of Florida, was a treaty between the United States and Spain in 1819 that gave Florida to the U.S. and set out a boundary between the U.S. and New Spain . It settled a standing border dispute between the two...
), partly to reduce Indian raids, and partly to eliminate a refuge for escaped slaves from neighboring southern states. One of the first U.S. actions in its new territory was a raid which destroyed Angola, a settlement built by escaped slaves and free blacks on the eastern shore of Tampa Bay.
Frontier days
The Treaty of Moultrie CreekTreaty of Moultrie Creek
The Treaty of Moultrie Creek was an agreement signed in 1823 between the government of the United States and several chiefs of the Seminole Indians in the present-day state of Florida. The United States had acquired Florida from Spain in 1821 by means of the Adams-Onís Treaty. In 1823 the...
(1823) created a large Indian reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
in the interior of the peninsula of Florida. As part of efforts to establish control over the vast wilderness
Wilderness
Wilderness or wildland is a natural environment on Earth that has not been significantly modified by human activity. It may also be defined as: "The most intact, undisturbed wild natural areas left on our planet—those last truly wild places that humans do not control and have not developed with...
, the U.S. government built a series of forts and trading posts in the new territory. "Cantonment Brooke" was established on January 10, 1824, by Colonels George Mercer Brooke and James Gadsden
James Gadsden
James Gadsden was an American diplomat, soldier and businessman and namesake of the Gadsden Purchase, in which the United States purchased from Mexico the land that became the southern portion of Arizona and New Mexico. James Gadsden served as Adjutant General of the U. S...
at the mouth of the Hillsborough River on Tampa Bay, at the site of the Tampa Convention Center
Tampa Convention Center
The Tampa Convention Center is a mid-sized convention center located in Downtown Tampa, Florida. Its location has both waterfront views and views of the skyline. In 2006, a 20-story Embassy Suites hotel opened next door, with a skybridge connecting it to the convention center. Harbour Island is...
in Downtown Tampa
Downtown Tampa
Image:Tampa_Skyline.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Downtown Tampa looking from the Hillsborough Riverpoly 2403 537 2441 500 2488 483 2516 455 2566 439 2597 410 2649 390 2682 358 2803 315 2949 342 2956 362 3068 383 3074 406 3202 431 3204 447 3332 473 3350 484 3485 1616 2446 1587 Wachovia Centerpoly 1745 1216...
. On January 22, 1824, the post was officially named Fort Brooke
Fort Brooke
Fort Brooke was a historical military post situated on the east bank of the Hillsborough River in present-day Tampa, Florida. The Tampa Convention Center currently stands at the site.-Fort Brooke as a military outpost:...
.
Second Seminole War
The Second Seminole War, also known as the Florida War, was a conflict from 1835 to 1842 in Florida between various groups of Native Americans collectively known as Seminoles and the United States, part of a series of conflicts called the Seminole Wars...
flared up in late 1835. After almost seven years of vicious fighting, the Seminoles were forced away from the Tampa region and many settlers returned.
The Territory of Florida had grown enough by 1845 to become the 27th state.
Four years after statehood, on January 18, 1849, Tampa had also grown enough to officially incorporate as the "Village of Tampa". Tampa was home to 185 inhabitants, not including military personnel stationed at Fort Brooke. The city's first census count in 1850, however, listed Tampa-Fort Brooke
Tampa-Fort Brooke, Florida
Tampa-Fort Brooke was a single census area recorded by the United States Census Bureau during the 1850 federal census with the title Tampa, including Fort Brooke. It was designated to include Tampa and Fort Brooke, which were separate entities. The population recorded was 974...
as having 974 residents, inclusive of the military personnel.
Tampa was reincorporated as a town on December 15, 1855, and Judge Joseph B. Lancaster became the first mayor in 1856.
Tampa during the Civil War
During the American Civil WarAmerican Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, Florida seceded along with most of the southern states to form the Confederate States of America
Confederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. Fort Brooke was manned by Confederate troops, and martial law
Martial law
Martial law is the imposition of military rule by military authorities over designated regions on an emergency basis— only temporary—when the civilian government or civilian authorities fail to function effectively , when there are extensive riots and protests, or when the disobedience of the law...
was declared in Tampa in January 1862. Tampa's city government ceased to operate for the duration of the war.
In late 1861, the Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
Navy set up a blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
around many southern ports to cut off the Confederacy from outside help, and several ships were stationed near the mouth of Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay."Tampa Bay" is not the name of any municipality...
. Blockade runners based in Tampa were able to repeatedly slip through the blockade to trade cattle and citrus for needed supplies, mainly with Spanish Cuba.
Union gunboats sailed up Tampa Bay to bombard Fort Brooke and the surrounding city of Tampa. The Battle of Tampa
Battle of Tampa
The Battle of Tampa was a minor engagement of the American Civil War fought June 30 – July 1, 1862, between the United States Navy and a Confederate artillery company charged with protecting the ports of Tampa, a small but notable trade hub for the Confederacy, now facing a full-scale Union...
on June 30 and July 1, 1862, was inconclusive, as the shells fell ineffectually, and there were no human casualties on either side.
More damaging to the Confederate cause was the Battle of Fort Brooke
Battle of Fort Brooke
The Battle of Fort Brooke was a minor engagement fought October 16–18, 1863, near Tampa, Florida, during the American Civil War.Two Union Navy ships, USS Tahoma and USS Adela, bombarded Fort Brooke on October 16, 1863, as a diversion, while a landing party under Acting Master T.R...
on October 17 and October 18, 1863. Two Union gunboats shelled the fort and surrounding town and landed troops, who found blockade runners hidden up the Hillsborough River
Hillsborough River (Florida)
The Hillsborough River is a river located in the state of Florida in the USA. It arises in the Green Swamp near the juncture of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties, and flows through Pasco and Hillsborough Counties to an outlet in the city of Tampa on Tampa Bay. The name Hillsborough River first...
near present-day Lowry Park Zoo
Lowry Park Zoo
Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo is a nonprofit zoo located in Tampa, Florida. In 2004, Lowry Park Zoo was voted the #1 Family Friendly Zoo in the US by Child Magazine, and is recognized by the State of Florida as the center for Florida wildlife conservation and biodiversity .Tampa's Lowry Park Zoological...
and destroyed them. The local militia mustered to intercept the Union troops, but they were able to return to their ships after a short skirmish and headed back out to sea.
The war ended
Appomattox Court House
The Appomattox Courthouse is the current courthouse in Appomattox, Virginia built in 1892. It is located in the middle of the state about three miles northwest of the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park, once known as Clover Hill - home of the original Old Appomattox Court House...
in April 1865 with a Confederate defeat. In May 1865, federal troops arrived in Tampa to occupy the fort and the town as part of Reconstruction. They remained until August 1869.
Reconstruction
The Reconstruction period was hard on Tampa. With little industry, and land transportation links limited to bumpy wagon roads from the east coast of Florida, Tampa was a fishing village with very few people, and poor prospects for development. Throughout its history, Tampa had been affected by yellow feverYellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
epidemics borne by mosquitoes from the surrounding swampland, but the sickness was particularly widespread during the late 1860s and 1870s. The disease was little understood at the time, and many residents simply packed up and left rather than face the mysterious and deadly peril.
In 1869, residents voted to abolish the city of Tampa government. The population of "Tampa Town" was below 800 in the official 1870 census count and had fallen further by 1880 (see demographics, below).
Fort Brooke, the seed from which Tampa had germinated, had served its purpose and was decommissioned in 1883. Except for two cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
s displayed on the nearby University of Tampa
University of Tampa
The University of Tampa , is a private, co-educational university in Downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 2006, the University celebrated its 75th anniversary...
campus, all traces of the fort are gone. A large downtown parking garage near the old fort site is called the Fort Brooke Parking Garage.
Prosperity
Phosphate
A phosphate, an inorganic chemical, is a salt of phosphoric acid. In organic chemistry, a phosphate, or organophosphate, is an ester of phosphoric acid. Organic phosphates are important in biochemistry and biogeochemistry or ecology. Inorganic phosphates are mined to obtain phosphorus for use in...
was discovered in the Bone Valley
Bone Valley
The Bone Valley is a region of central Florida, encompassing portions of present-day Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, and Polk counties, in which phosphate is mined for use in the production of agricultural fertilizer...
region southeast of Tampa in 1883. The mineral, vital for the production of fertilizers and other products, was soon being shipped out from the Port of Tampa in great volume. Tampa is still a major phosphate exporter.
Plant's railroad
Henry B. PlantHenry B. Plant
Henry Bradley Plant , was involved with many transportation projects, mostly railroads, in the U.S. state of Florida. Eventually he owned the Plant System of railroads which became part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad...
's railroad line reached Tampa and its port shortly thereafter, finally connecting the small town to the nation's railroad system after years of efforts by local leaders. Previously, Tampa's overland transportation links had consisted of rutted sandy roads stretching across the Florida countryside. Plant's railroad made it much easier to get goods in and out of the Tampa Bay area. Phosphate and commercial fishing
Commercial fishing
Commercial fishing is the activity of catching fish and other seafood for commercial profit, mostly from wild fisheries. It provides a large quantity of food to many countries around the world, but those who practice it as an industry must often pursue fish far into the ocean under adverse conditions...
exports could be sent north and many new products were brought into the Tampa market, along with the first tourists.
Ybor's cigars
The new railroad link enabled another important industry to come to Tampa. In 1885, the Tampa Board of Trade enticed Vicente Martinez YborVicente Martinez Ybor
Vicente Martinez Ybor was a Spanish American industrialist and cigar manufacturer, best known for founding the cigar-manufacturing town of Ybor City near Tampa, Florida in 1886.-Cuba:...
to move his cigar
Cigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
manufacturing operations to Tampa from Key West
Key West
Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida on the North American continent at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Key West is home to the southernmost point in the Continental United States; the island is about from Cuba....
. Proximity to Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
made importation of "clear Havana tobacco" easy by sea, and Plant's railroad made shipment of finished cigars to the rest of the US market easy by land.
Since Tampa was still a small town at the time (population less than 5000), Ybor built hundreds of small houses around his factory to accommodate the immediate influx of mainly Cuban
Cubans
Cubans or Cuban people are the inhabitants or citizens of Cuba. Cuba is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
and Spanish
Spanish people
The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....
cigar workers. Ybor City's factories rolled their first cigars in 1886, and many different cigar manufacturers moved their operations to town in ensuing years. Many Italian and a few eastern European Jewish immigrants arrived starting in the late 1880s, opening businesses and shops that catered to cigar workers. By 1900, over 10,000 immigrants had moved to the neighborhood. Several thousand more Cuban immigrants built West Tampa, another cigar-centric suburb founded a few years later by Hugh MacFarlane. Between them, two "Latin" communities combined to exponentially expand Tampa's population, economic base, and tax revenues, as Tampa became the "Cigar Capital of the World".
The Tampa Bay Hotel
In 1891, Henry B. PlantHenry B. Plant
Henry Bradley Plant , was involved with many transportation projects, mostly railroads, in the U.S. state of Florida. Eventually he owned the Plant System of railroads which became part of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad...
built a lavish 500+ room, quarter-mile (400 m) long, US$2.5 million eclectic/Moorish Revival
Moorish Revival
Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish is one of the exotic revival architectural styles that were adopted by architects of Europe and the Americas in the wake of the Romanticist fascination with all things oriental...
-style luxury resort hotel called the Tampa Bay Hotel
Henry B. Plant Museum
The Henry B. Plant Museum is located in the south wing of Plant Hall on the University of Tampa’s campus, at 401 West Kennedy Boulevard. The museum focuses on the turn of the century Victorian lifestyle of the old Tampa Bay Hotel’s guests...
among 150 acre (0.607029 km²) of manicured gardens along the banks of the Hillsborough River
Hillsborough River (Florida)
The Hillsborough River is a river located in the state of Florida in the USA. It arises in the Green Swamp near the juncture of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties, and flows through Pasco and Hillsborough Counties to an outlet in the city of Tampa on Tampa Bay. The name Hillsborough River first...
. Plant's resort featured a race track, a heated indoor pool, a golf course, a 2000-seat auditorium, tennis courts, stables, hunting and fishing tours, and electric lights and telephones in every room, plus the first elevator in town and exotic art collectibles which Plant had shipped in from around the world.
The Tampa Bay Hotel was relatively prosperous for about a decade. The resort hosted thousands of guests and many celebrities of the era, but was only filled to capacity during the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
(see below). Henry Plant died in 1899, and his heirs sold the facilities to the city of Tampa in 1904. The city operated the hotel and used the grounds as a community gathering place until 1932, when the resort was closed, remodeled, and reopened as the University of Tampa
University of Tampa
The University of Tampa , is a private, co-educational university in Downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 2006, the University celebrated its 75th anniversary...
a year later.
Spanish-American War
Mainly because of Henry Plant's connections in the War Department, Tampa was chosen as an embarkation center for American troops in the Spanish-American WarSpanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
. Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
and his Rough Riders
Rough Riders
The Rough Riders is the name bestowed on the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish-American War and the only one of the three to see action. The United States Army was weakened and left with little manpower after the American Civil War...
were among the 30,000 troops who waited in Tampa for the order to ship out to Cuba during the summer of 1898, filling the town to bursting and delivering another huge boost to the local economy.
A Crucial Time
The discovery of phosphate, the arrival of Plant's railroad, and the founding of Ybor City and West Tampa—all in the mid-1880s—were crucial to Tampa's development. The once-struggling village of Tampa became a bustling boomtownBoomtown
A boomtown is a community that experiences sudden and rapid population and economic growth. The growth is normally attributed to the nearby discovery of a precious resource such as gold, silver, or oil, although the term can also be applied to communities growing very rapidly for different reasons,...
almost overnight, and had grown into one of the largest cities in Florida by 1900.
Early 20th century
During the first few decades of the 20th century, the cigarCigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
-making industry was the backbone of Tampa's economy. The factories in Ybor City and West Tampa made an enormous number of cigars—in the peak year of 1929, over 500,000,000 cigars were hand rolled in the city.
In 1904, a local civic association of local businessmen dubbed themselves Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla (named after local mythical pirate Jose Gaspar), and staged an "invasion" of the city followed by a parade. With a few exceptions, the Gasparilla Pirate Festival
Gasparilla Pirate Festival
The Gasparilla Pirate Festival is an annual celebration held in the city of Tampa, Florida. Held each year in late January and hosted by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla and the City of Tampa, it celebrates the apocryphal legend of José Gaspar , supposedly a Spanish pirate captain who operated in...
has been held every year since.
Bolita and organized crime
Beginning in the late 19th century, illegal bolitaBolita
Bolita , is a type of lottery which was popular in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries in Cuba and among Florida's working class Hispanic, Italian, and black population. In the basic bolita game, 100 small numbered balls are placed into a bag and mixed thoroughly, and bets are taken on which...
lotteries were very popular among the Tampa working classes, especially in Ybor City. In the early 1920s, this small-time operation was taken over by Charlie Wall, the rebellious son of a prominent Tampa family, and went big-time. Bolita was able to openly thrive only because of kick-backs and bribes to key local politicians and law enforcement officials, and many were on the take.
Profits from the bolita lotteries and Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
-era bootlegging led to the development of several organized crime
Organized crime
Organized crime or criminal organizations are transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist organizations, are...
factions in the city. Charlie Wall was the first major boss, but various power struggles culminated in consolidation of control by Sicilian
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
mafioso
Mafia
The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...
Santo Trafficante, Sr.
Santo Trafficante, Sr.
Santo Trafficante, Sr. was a Sicilian-born mobster, and father of the powerful mobster Santo Trafficante, Jr.-Early life:...
, and his faction in the 1950s. After his death in 1954 from cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
, control passed to his son Santo Trafficante, Jr.
Santo Trafficante, Jr.
Santo Trafficante, Jr. was one of the last of the old-time Mafia bosses in the United States. He allegedly controlled organized criminal operations in Florida and Cuba, which had previously been consolidated from several rival gangs by his father, Santo Trafficante, Sr...
, who established alliances with families in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and extended his power throughout Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and into Batista
Fulgencio Batista
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar was the United States-aligned Cuban President, dictator and military leader who served as the leader of Cuba from 1933 to 1944 and from 1952 to 1959, before being overthrown as a result of the Cuban Revolution....
-era Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
.
The era of rampant and open corruption ended in the 1950s, when the Senator Kefauver's traveling organized crime hearings
Kefauver hearings
The United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce was a special committee of the United States Senate which existed from 1950 to 1951 and which investigated organized crime which crossed state borders in the United States...
came to town and were followed by the sensational misconduct trials of several local officials. Although many of the worst offenders in government and the mob were not charged, the trials helped to end the sense of lawlessness which had prevailed in Tampa for decades.
Mid to late 20th century
Tampa grew considerably as a result of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Prior to the United States' involvement in the conflict, construction began on MacDill Field, the predecessor of present day MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base is an active United States Air Force base located approximately south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida...
. MacDill Field served as a main base for Army Air Corps
United States Army Air Corps
The United States Army Air Corps was a forerunner of the United States Air Force. Renamed from the Air Service on 2 July 1926, it was part of the United States Army and the predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces , established in 1941...
and later Army Air Forces
United States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
operations just before and during World War II, with multiple auxiliary airfields around the Tampa Bay area and surrounding counties. At the end of the war, MacDill remained as an active military installation while the auxiliary fields reverted to civilian control. Two of these auxiliary fields would later become the present day Tampa International Airport
Tampa International Airport
Tampa International Airport is a major public airport located six nautical miles west of the central business district of Tampa, in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. This airport is publicly owned by Hillsborough County Aviation Authority...
and St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport
St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport
St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport is a joint civil-military airport located in unincorporated Pinellas County, Florida, north of St. Petersburg, serving St...
. With the establishment of an independent U.S. Air Force in 1947, MacDill Field became MacDill AFB.
During the 1950s and 1960s Tampa saw record-setting population growth that has not been seen since. This amazing growth spurred major expansion of the city’s highways and bridges bringing thousands into the city and creating endless possibilities for Tampa business owners who welcomed tourists and new citizens alike into their neighborhoods. It was during this time period in the city’s history that two of the most popular tourist attractions in the area were developed – Busch Gardens
Busch Gardens
Busch Gardens is the name of two amusement parks in the United States, owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, a division of Blackstone Group. One of the parks is in Williamsburg, Virginia, and the other is in Tampa, Florida...
and Lowry Park. Many of the well-known institutions that play an important role in the economic development of the city were established during this time period.
In 1956, the University of South Florida
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...
was established in North Tampa, spurring major development in this section of the city and offering many new job opportunities. Tampa continued to expand as new hospitals, schools, churches and subdivisions all began appearing to accommodate the growth. Many business offices began moving away from the traditional downtown office building into more convenient neighborhood office plazas.
Four attempts have been made to consolidate the municipal government of the city of Tampa with the county government of Hillsborough County (1967, 1970, 1971, and 1972), all of which failed at the ballot box; the greatest loss was also the most recent attempt in 1972, with the final tally being 33,160 (31%) in favor and 73,568 (69%) against the proposed charter.
The biggest recent growth in the city was the development of New Tampa, which started in 1988 when the city annexed a mostly rural area of 24 square miles (62.2 km²) between I-275
Interstate 275 (Florida)
Interstate 275 in Florida serves the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, measuring 60.696 miles in length. The southern terminus is I-75 near Palmetto, just five miles east of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, a toll bridge crossing Tampa Bay. The highway passes through St...
and I-75
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. It travels from State Road 826 and State Road 924 in Hialeah, Florida to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, at the Ontario, Canada, border...
.
East Tampa, historically a mostly black community, was the scene of several riots
Tampa Riots
The city of Tampa, Florida, has experienced five instances of rioting.-Tampa Riots of 1967:On June 11, 1967, 19 year old Martin Chambers was suspected of robbing a camera store. Chambers ran from police near Nebraska and Harrison Streets and was shot in the back and died...
during and for some time after the period of racial segregation, mainly due to problems between residents and the Tampa Police Department.
Geography and weather
Tampa is located on the West coast of FloridaFlorida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
at 27°58′15"N 82°27′53"W (27.970898, -82.464640).
Topography
According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the city has a total area of 170.6 square miles (441.9 km²), of which 112.1 square miles (290.3 km²) is land and 58.5 square miles (151.5 km²) (34.31%) is water. The highest point in the city is only 48 feet (14.6 m). Tampa is bordered by two bodies of water, Old Tampa Bay and Hillsborough Bay
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay."Tampa Bay" is not the name of any municipality...
, both of which flow together to form Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay."Tampa Bay" is not the name of any municipality...
, which in turn flows into the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
. The Hillsborough River
Hillsborough River (Florida)
The Hillsborough River is a river located in the state of Florida in the USA. It arises in the Green Swamp near the juncture of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties, and flows through Pasco and Hillsborough Counties to an outlet in the city of Tampa on Tampa Bay. The name Hillsborough River first...
flows out into Hillsborough Bay, passing directly in front of Downtown Tampa and supplying Tampa with its main source of fresh water. Palm River is a smaller river flowing from just east of the city into McKay Bay, which is a smaller inlet, sited at the northeast end of Hillsborough Bay Tampa's cartography is marked by the Interbay Peninsula which divides Hillsborough Bay (the eastern) from Old Tampa Bay (the western).
Climate
Humid subtropical climate
A humid subtropical climate is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters...
(Köppen
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by Crimea German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen himself, notably in 1918 and 1936...
Cfa), with hot summer days, frequent thunderstorms in the summer (rain is less frequent in the fall and winter), and a threat of a light winter freeze from November 15 through March 5 caused by occasional cold fronts from the north, and even then not every year. Since Tampa has some characteristics of a tropical climate, hard freezes happen rarely (every 15 to 20 years). Tampa is listed as USDA zone 10, which is about the northern limit of where coconut palms and royal palms can be grown. Average highs range from 70 to 90 °F (21.1 to 32.2 C) year round, and lows 52 to 76 °F (11.1 to 24.4 C).
While it may surprise anyone who has suffered the area's intense summer heat, Tampa's official recorded high has never hit 100 °F (37.8 °C) - the all-time record high temperature is 99 °F (37 °C), recorded on June 5, 1985.
Temperatures are hot from around mid-April through mid-October, which coincides approximately with the rainy season. Summertime weather is very consistent, with highs near 90°F (32-34 °C), lows in the mid-70s °F (23-24 °C), and high humidity
Humidity
Humidity is a term for the amount of water vapor in the air, and can refer to any one of several measurements of humidity. Formally, humid air is not "moist air" but a mixture of water vapor and other constituents of air, and humidity is defined in terms of the water content of this mixture,...
. Afternoon thunderstorms, usually generated by the interaction of the Gulf
Gulf of Mexico
The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...
and Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
sea breeze
Sea breeze
A sea-breeze is a wind from the sea that develops over land near coasts. It is formed by increasing temperature differences between the land and water; these create a pressure minimum over the land due to its relative warmth, and forces higher pressure, cooler air from the sea to move inland...
s, are such a regular occurrence during the summer that the Tampa Bay area is recognized as the "Lightning Capital of North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
". Every year, Florida averages 10 deaths and 30 injuries from lightning strikes, with several of these usually occurring in or around Tampa.
In the winter, average temperatures range from the low to mid 70s during the day to the low to mid 50s at night. However, sustained colder air from Canada pushes into the area on several occasions every winter, dropping the highs and lows to 15 degrees below the average (or even colder) for several days at a time before seasonal average temperatures return. The temperature falls below freezing an average of 2 to 3 times per year, though this does not occur every season. Since the Tampa area is home to a diverse range of freeze-sensitive agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...
and aquaculture
Aquaculture
Aquaculture, also known as aquafarming, is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants. Aquaculture involves cultivating freshwater and saltwater populations under controlled conditions, and can be contrasted with commercial fishing, which is the...
, hard freezes, although very infrequent, are a major concern. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Tampa was 18 °F (-8 °C) on December 13, 1962.
Great Blizzard of 1899
The Great Blizzard of 1899 was an unprecedented winter weather event that affected the southern United States. What made it historic was both the severity of winter weather and the extent of the U.S. it affected, especially in the South. The first reports indicated record-high barometric pressure...
, Tampa experienced its one and only known blizzard
Blizzard
A blizzard is a severe snowstorm characterized by strong winds. By definition, the difference between blizzard and a snowstorm is the strength of the wind. To be a blizzard, a snow storm must have winds in excess of with blowing or drifting snow which reduces visibility to 400 meters or ¼ mile or...
, with "bay effect" snow
Lake effect snow
Lake-effect snow is produced during cooler atmospheric conditions when cold winds move across long expanses of warmer lake water, providing energy and picking up water vapor which freezes and is deposited on the leeward shores...
coming off Tampa Bay. The last measurable snow in Tampa fell on January 19, 1977. The accumulation amounted to all of 0.2 inch (0.508 cm), but the city, unprepared for and unaccustomed to wintry weather, came to a virtual standstill for a day. Three major freezes occurred in the 1980s: in January 1982
Cold Sunday
"Cold Sunday" was a meteorological event which took place on January 17, 1982, when unprecedentedly cold air swept down from Canada and plunged temperatures across much of the United States far below existing all-time record lows....
, January 1985
January 1985 Arctic outbreak
The 1985 Arctic outbreak was a meteorological event, the result of the shifting of the polar vortex further south than is normally seen. Blocked from its normal movement, polar air from the north pushed into nearly every section of the eastern half of the United States and Canada, shattering record...
, and December 1989. The losses suffered by farmers forced many to sell off their citrus groves, which helped fuel a boom in subdivision development in the 1990s and 2000s.
Yearly precipitation trends
Because of the frequent summer thunderstormThunderstorm
A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, thundershower or simply a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. The meteorologically assigned cloud type associated with the...
s, Tampa has a pronounced wet season, receiving an average of 26.1 inches (663 mm) of rain from June to September but only about 18.6 inches (472 mm) during the remaining eight months of the year. The historical averages during the late summer, especially September, are augmented by passing tropical systems, which can easily dump many inches of rain in one day. Outside of the summer rainy season, most of the area's precipitation is delivered by the occasional passage of a weather front
Weather front
A weather front is a boundary separating two masses of air of different densities, and is the principal cause of meteorological phenomena. In surface weather analyses, fronts are depicted using various colored lines and symbols, depending on the type of front...
.
Cityscape
Architecture
Tampa displays a wide variety of architectural designs and styles. Most of Tampa's high rises demonstrate Post-modern architecture. The design for the renovated Tampa Museum of ArtTampa Museum of Art
The Tampa Museum of Art is located in Downtown Tampa, Florida. The museum exhibits 20th-century fine art, as well as Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. It opened in 1979 on the banks of Hillsborough River.- Museum History :...
, displays Post-modern architecture, while the city hall and the Tampa Theatre
Tampa Theatre
The Tampa Theatre and Office Building is a historic U.S. theater and city landmark in the Uptown District of downtown Tampa, Florida. On January 3, 1978, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places....
belong to Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
architecture.
The Tampa mayor as of 2008, Pam Iorio
Pam Iorio
Pam Iorio is an American politician and author, who served as mayor of Tampa, Florida from 2003 to 2011.Her first book, Straightforward, is expected to be released in November 2011...
, has made the redevelopment of Tampa's downtown
Downtown Tampa
Image:Tampa_Skyline.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Downtown Tampa looking from the Hillsborough Riverpoly 2403 537 2441 500 2488 483 2516 455 2566 439 2597 410 2649 390 2682 358 2803 315 2949 342 2956 362 3068 383 3074 406 3202 431 3204 447 3332 473 3350 484 3485 1616 2446 1587 Wachovia Centerpoly 1745 1216...
, especially bringing in residents to the decidedly non-residential area, a priority. Several residential and mixed-development high-rises are in various stages of planning or construction, and a few have already opened. Another of Mayor Iorio's initiatives is the Tampa Riverwalk, a plan which intends to make better use of the land along the Hillsborough River in downtown where Tampa began. Several museums are part of the plan, including new homes for the Tampa Bay History Center, the Tampa Children's Museum, and the Tampa Museum of Art
Tampa Museum of Art
The Tampa Museum of Art is located in Downtown Tampa, Florida. The museum exhibits 20th-century fine art, as well as Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. It opened in 1979 on the banks of Hillsborough River.- Museum History :...
.
Tampa is the site of several skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
s. Overall, there are 18 completed buildings that rise over 250 feet (76 m) high. The city also has 69 high-rises, more than any other city in Florida after Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
. The tallest building in the city is 100 North Tampa
100 North Tampa
100 North Tampa, formerly known as the Regions Building and the AmSouth Building, is a skyscraper in Tampa, Florida, USA. Rising to a height of and 42 floors in Downtown Tampa, the structure currently stands as the tallest building in Tampa and the ninth-tallest building in Florida. 100 North...
, formerly the AmSouth Building, which rises 42 floors
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
and 579 feet (176 m) in Downtown Tampa. The structure was completed in 1992, and is the tallest building in Florida outside of Miami and Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
.
Neighborhoods and surrounding municipalities
The city is divided into many neighborhoods, many of which were towns and unincorporated communities annexed by the growing city. Generally, the city is divided into the following areas: Downtown TampaDowntown Tampa
Image:Tampa_Skyline.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Downtown Tampa looking from the Hillsborough Riverpoly 2403 537 2441 500 2488 483 2516 455 2566 439 2597 410 2649 390 2682 358 2803 315 2949 342 2956 362 3068 383 3074 406 3202 431 3204 447 3332 473 3350 484 3485 1616 2446 1587 Wachovia Centerpoly 1745 1216...
, New Tampa, West Tampa
West Tampa, Florida
West Tampa is one of the oldest districts within the city limits of Tampa, USA, and a former incorporated city located west of the Hillsborough River and downtown Tampa. As of the 2000 census, the district had a population of 22,008...
, East Tampa, North Tampa, and South Tampa
South Tampa
South Tampa comprises the city of Tampa communities of Beach Park, Ballast Point, Bayshore Beautiful Bayshore Gardens, Bayside West, Belmar Shore, Davis Islands, Port Tampa, Fair Oaks-Manhattan Manor, Golfview, Hyde Park, New Suburb Beautiful, Virginia Park, Palma Ceia, Rattlesnake Gandy-Sun Bay...
. Well-known communities include Ybor City, Forest Hills, Ballast Point, Sulphur Springs, Seminole Heights, Tampa Heights, Palma Ceia, Hyde Park, Davis Islands, Tampa Palms, College Hill, and non-residential areas of Gary and the Westshore Business District
Westshore, Tampa
Westshore is the principal business district of Tampa, Florida, with more than of commercial office space, 4,000 businesses with nearly 100,000 employees, 32 hotels, two major shopping malls and more than 200 restaurants and bars. Westshore Boulevard is the district's main thoroughfare...
.
Surrounding communities
| Northwest: Citrus Park Citrus Park, Florida Citrus Park is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 24,252 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Citrus Park is located at , or about nine miles northwest of Tampa... , Oldsmar Oldsmar, Florida Oldsmar is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 11,910 at the 2000 census. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates the population to be 13,401 as of 2008.... , Palm Harbor Palm Harbor, Florida Palm Harbor is a census-designated place and an unincorporated community in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. As of the 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 59,248.-Culture:... , Tarpon Springs Tarpon Springs, Florida Tarpon Springs is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 21,003 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, the city had a population of 22,554.... , Carrollwood Greater Carrollwood, Florida Greater Carrollwood is a census-designated place and an unincorporated census area located in northwestern Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 33,519 at the 2000 census. The census area includes the separate communities of Carrollwood and Carrollwood Village.- ZIP code... , Northdale Greater Northdale, Florida Greater Northdale is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 20,461 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Greater Northdale is located at .... , New Port Richey New Port Richey, Florida New Port Richey is a city in Pasco County, Florida, United States. It is a suburban city included in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area... , Odessa Odessa, Florida Odessa is a census-designated place in both Hillsborough County, Florida, and Pasco County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,173 at the 2000 census.- History :... , East Lake East Lake, Hillsborough County, Florida East Lake is an unincorporated community located in Hillsborough County, Florida. The community is combined with Orient Park to form the Census Designated Place of East Lake-Orient Park. According to Rand McNally in 2002, the population estimate for the community was 3,400... , Keystone Keystone, Florida Keystone is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 24,039 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Keystone is located at .... , Holiday Holiday, Florida Holiday , is a census-designated place in Pasco County, Florida, United States. It is a suburb included in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 21,904 at the 2000 census.The name Holiday, like the names of many towns, comes from a spark... , Dunedin Dunedin, Florida Dunedin is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. The population was 35,691 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 36,632... , Trinity Trinity, Florida Trinity is a census-designated place in Pasco County, Florida, United States. The population was 4,279 at the 2000 census. It is now speculated that the Trinity area has grown to almost triple the size with a probable population of 13,298... |
North: Lutz Lutz, Florida Lutz is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 19,344 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Lutz is located at .... , Land O' Lakes Land O' Lakes, Florida Land O' Lakes is a census-designated place in Pasco County, Florida, in the United States. Land O' Lakes is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida MSA. As of the 2010 census, the CDP population was 31,145. The city grew rapidly during the 1990s, growing from 7,800 residents to... , University Area University, Florida University is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 41,163 at the 2010 census. It is the home of University of South Florida located just east of the community. The community is also known as University West, mainly due to its... , San Antonio San Antonio, Florida San Antonio is a city in Pasco County, Florida, United States. It is a suburban city included in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 655 at the 2000 census, although local officials claim the true population in 2000 was 842. As of 2004,... , Cheval Cheval, Florida Cheval is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 10,702 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Cheval is located at .... |
Northeast: Temple Terrace Temple Terrace, Florida Temple Terrace is an incorporated city in northeastern Hillsborough County, Florida, USA, adjacent to Tampa. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,541. It is the third and smallest incorporated municipality in Hillsborough County... , Thonotosassa Thonotosassa, Florida Thonotosassa is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,091 at the 2000 census.-History:... , Wesley Chapel Wesley Chapel, Florida Wesley Chapel is a census-designated place in Pasco County, Florida, United States. Wesley Chapel is considered part of the Tampa Bay Area metro. The population was 44,092 at the 2010 census. In 2003, some residents of Wesley Chapel started a movement to incorporate the community... , Wesley Chapel South Wesley Chapel South, Florida Wesley Chapel South is a census-designated place in Pasco County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,245 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Wesley Chapel South is located at .... , Mango Mango, Florida Mango is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 8,842 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Mango is located at .... , Zephryhills Zephyrhills, Florida Zephyrhills is a city in Pasco County, Florida. The population was 10,833 at the 2000 census. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, the city had a population of 11,854. It is a suburb of the Tampa Bay Metropolitan Statistical Area... , Dade City Dade City, Florida Dade City is a city in Pasco County, Florida. The population was 6,188 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Pasco County. Dade City is a suburb of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S... , Pebble Creek Pebble Creek, Florida Pebble Creek is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 4,824 at the 2000 census... |
| West: Westchase Westchase, Florida Westchase is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 11,116 as of the 2000 census. The Census area is co-extensive with the ZIP code that serves the area . Westchase is also one of the wealthiest areas of Hillsborough County.-... , Town 'n' Country Town 'n' Country, Florida Town 'n' Country is a census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 78,442 at the 2010 census.Within Town 'n' Country are located Bay Crest Park, Countryway, Rocky Creek, Sweetwater Creek.-History:... , Egypt Lake Egypt Lake, Florida Egypt Lake is an unincorporated community in northwestern Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. It's located within the Census Designated Place of Egypt Lake-Leto, which contains separate communities of Egypt Lake and Leto. It was a separate Census Designated Place from 1970 to 1990... , Leto Leto, Florida Leto is an unincorporated community in northwestern Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. Along with Egypt Lake, it is a part of the census-designated place of Egypt Lake-Leto. It was a separate CDP from 1970 to 1990... , Clearwater Clearwater, Florida Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of... , Largo Largo, Florida Largo is the third largest city in Pinellas County, Florida, USA and is part of the Tampa Bay Area. Centrally located, it is the crossroads of the county. As of the 2000 census, the City had a total population of 69,371. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau was... , Clearwater Beach, Belleair Belleair, Florida Belleair is a town in Pinellas County, Florida, United States.-Geography:According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of . of it is land and of it is water.-Form of Government:... , Feather Sound Feather Sound, Florida Feather Sound is a census-designated place in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,597 at the 2000 census. It includes the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport.-Geography:... , Harbor Bluffs Harbor Bluffs, Florida Harbor Bluffs is a census-designated place in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 2,807 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Harbor Bluffs is located at .... , Safety Harbor |
Tampa | East: Brandon Brandon, Florida Brandon is a census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a total population of 103,483.-Founding:... , Gibsonton Gibsonton, Florida Gibsonton is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 14,234 at the 2010 census.... , Seffner Seffner, Florida Seffner is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,467 at the 2000 census, although its ZIP codes , which boundaries extend beyond the ones given by the census and include the places of Mango and a portion of Thonotosassa, have... , Valrico Valrico, Florida Valrico is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 6,582 at the 2000 census.-History:... , Dover Dover, Florida Dover is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,702 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Dover is located at .... , Plant City Plant City, Florida Plant City is a city in Hillsborough County, Florida, in the United States, approximately midway between Brandon and Lakeland along Interstate 4. The population was 34,721 at the 2010 census.... , East Tampa East Tampa, Florida East Tampa is an unincorporated community in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. Although a separate community, it is a part of the census-designated place of Gibsonton. The ZIP code for the community is 33619... , Progress Village Progress Village, Florida Progress Village is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 2,482 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Progress Village is located at .... , Bloomingdale Bloomingdale, Florida Bloomingdale is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 22,711 at the 2010 census... , Lithia Lithia, Florida Lithia is an unincorporated community in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. It is a suburb of Tampa and has a population of 8,527. The zip code is 33547. The area code is 813.-Description:... , Del Rio Del Rio, Florida Del Rio is an unincorporated, urban community in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States, between Tampa and Temple Terrace, near the Hillsborough River... , Palm River Palm River, Florida -Situation:The community is combined with Clair Mel to form the Census Designated Place of Palm River-Clair Mel, thus no data was available separately. The community is served by a 33619 ZIP Code.-Geography:... , Orient Park Orient Park, Florida Orient Park is an unincorporated community in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. Along with East Lake, it is a part of the census-designated place of East Lake-Orient Park. The ZIP code for the community is 33619.-Geography:... |
| Southwest: St. Petersburg, St. Pete Beach St. Pete Beach, Florida St. Pete Beach is a coastal city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States famous for its status as a tourist destination. St. Pete Beach was formed from the Towns of Pass-a-Grille, Don CeSar, Belle Vista, St. Petersburg Beach and unincorporated Pinellas County. At the time of its incorporation... , Indian Rocks Beach Indian Rocks Beach, Florida Indian Rocks Beach is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,072 at the 2000 census. As of 2007, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 5,167.-Geography:... , Pinellas Park Pinellas Park, Florida Pinellas Park is a city located in central Pinellas County, Florida. The population was 45,658 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 47,166 . The city was founded by Philadelphia publisher, F. A... , Tierra Verde Tierra Verde, Florida Tierra Verde is a census-designated place in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,574 at the 2000 census.Located at the end of Tierra Verde is Fort De Soto County Park.-Geography:... , Gulfport Gulfport, Florida Gulfport is a city in Pinellas County, Florida and a suburb of St. Petersburg. The population of Gulfport was 12,527 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau was 12,740. Gulfport is part of the Tampa-St... , Seminole Seminole, Florida Seminole is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 10,890 at the 2000 census. As of 2007, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 19,195. St. Petersburg College has a campus in the city.-Geography:... , Treasure Island Treasure Island, Florida Treasure Island is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 7,450. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, the city had a population of 7,521.-Geography:... , Bay Pines Bay Pines, Florida Bay Pines is a census-designated place in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,065 at the 2000 census. The community is home to Bay Pines Veterans Hospital and Bay Pines National Cemetery.-Geography:... , Kenneth City Kenneth City, Florida Kenneth City is a town located in southern Pinellas County, Florida, between St. Petersburg and Pinellas Park, in the United States. Kenneth City was founded in 1957 by Sidney Colen, a local developer, who named the city after his son Kenneth Colen. The population was 4,400 at the 2000 census. As... , South Pasadena South Pasadena, Florida South Pasadena is a city located in southern Pinellas County, Florida, near St. Petersburg. The population was 5,778 at the 2000 census. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 5,745 .-Geography:... , Madeira Beach Madeira Beach, Florida Madeira Beach is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States bordered on the west by the Gulf of Mexico and on the east by St. Petersburg. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 4,492. Those living in this small Florida city are within minutes of the beach if they... |
South: Bradenton Bradenton, Florida Bradenton is a city in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The U.S. Census Bureau estimated the city's 2007 population to be 53,471. Bradenton is the largest Principal City of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had a 2007 estimated population of 682,833... , Ellenton Ellenton, Florida Ellenton is a census-designated place in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,142 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bradenton–Sarasota–Venice Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:... , Parrish Parrish, Florida Parrish is an unincorporated community in Manatee County, Florida, United States. It is located near the intersection of US 301 and State Road 62... , Apollo Beach Apollo Beach, Florida Apollo Beach is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 14,055 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Apollo Beach is located at .... , Sun City Center Greater Sun Center, Florida Greater Sun Center, known more commonly as Sun City Center, is an unincorporated census-designated place located in southern Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. It is located south of Tampa and north of Sarasota on I-75. As of the 2000 census, the population was 16,321... , Palmetto Palmetto, Florida Palmetto is a city in Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was listed as 12,606 It is part of the Bradenton–Sarasota–Venice Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:Palmetto is located at .... , Sarasota Sarasota, Florida Sarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers... , Venice Venice, Florida Venice is a city in Sarasota County, Florida, United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's 2007 estimates, the city had a population of 21,015. It is noted for its large snowbird population. Its newspaper is the Venice Gondolier Sun... , Memphis Memphis, Florida Memphis is a census-designated place in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The population was 7,264 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bradenton–Sarasota–Venice Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:... , Siesta Key Siesta Key, Florida Siesta Key is a barrier island off the central western coast of Florida in the United States of America. It is situated between Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. A portion of it lies within the city boundary of Sarasota, but the majority of the key is a census-designated place in Sarasota County... , Anna Maria Anna Maria, Florida Anna Maria, is a city in Manatee County, Florida, United States. The population was 1,814 at the 2000 census. According to the 2005 U.S. Census Bureau's estimates, the city grew slightly to 1,867. The city occupies the northern part of Anna Maria Island and is one of three municipalities on the... , Longboat Key Longboat Key, Florida Longboat Key is a town in Manatee and Sarasota counties along the central west coast of the U.S. state of Florida, located on the barrier island of the same name. Longboat Key is south of Anna Maria Island, between Sarasota Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It is almost equally divided between Manatee... |
Southeast: Riverview Riverview, Hillsborough County, Florida Riverview is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. It is located near Brandon. The population was 71,050 at the 2010 census.... , Gibsonton Gibsonton, Florida Gibsonton is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 14,234 at the 2010 census.... , Ruskin Ruskin, Florida Ruskin is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 17,208 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Ruskin is located at .... , Boyette Boyette, Florida Boyette is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 5,895 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Boyette is located at .... , Fish Hawk Fish Hawk, Florida Fish Hawk is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, the community had a total population of 14,087.-Geography:Fish Hawk is located at .... , Sun City Center Greater Sun Center, Florida Greater Sun Center, known more commonly as Sun City Center, is an unincorporated census-designated place located in southern Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. It is located south of Tampa and north of Sarasota on I-75. As of the 2000 census, the population was 16,321... , Wimauma Wimauma, Florida Wimauma is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 4,246 at the 2000 census.-History:... |
Landmarks
Sulphur Springs Water Tower
Sulphur Springs Water Tower is a landmark of Tampa, Florida. It stands tall, with a foundation deep which makes it visible from nearby Interstate 275 and much of the rest of Sulphur Springs...
, a landmark in Sulphur Springs
Sulphur Springs, Tampa, Florida
Sulphur Springs is a neighborhood and district located within the city limits of Tampa, Florida. As of the 2000 census, the neighborhood had a population of 6,308. - Description :...
section of the city, dates back to the late 1920s. This boom period for Florida
Florida land boom of the 1920s
The Florida land boom of the 1920s was Florida's first real estate bubble, which burst in 1925, leaving behind entire new cities and the remains of failed development projects such as Aladdin City in south Miami-Dade County and Isola di Lolando in north Biscayne Bay...
also saw the construction of an ornate movie palace
Movie palace
A movie palace is a term used to refer to the large, elaborately decorated movie theaters built between the 1910s and the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opened every year between 1925 and 1930.There are three building types in particular which can be subsumed...
, the Tampa Theatre
Tampa Theatre
The Tampa Theatre and Office Building is a historic U.S. theater and city landmark in the Uptown District of downtown Tampa, Florida. On January 3, 1978, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places....
, a Mediterranean revival on Davis Islands, and Bayshore Boulevard, which borders Hillsborough Bay from downtown Tampa
Downtown Tampa
Image:Tampa_Skyline.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Downtown Tampa looking from the Hillsborough Riverpoly 2403 537 2441 500 2488 483 2516 455 2566 439 2597 410 2649 390 2682 358 2803 315 2949 342 2956 362 3068 383 3074 406 3202 431 3204 447 3332 473 3350 484 3485 1616 2446 1587 Wachovia Centerpoly 1745 1216...
to areas in South Tampa. The road has a 6 miles (9.7 km) continuous sidewalk on the eastern end, the longest in the
world.
The Ybor City District
Historic district (United States)
In the United States, a historic district is a group of buildings, properties, or sites that have been designated by one of several entities on different levels as historically or architecturally significant. Buildings, structures, objects and sites within a historic district are normally divided...
is home to several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
and has been declared a National Historic Landmark
Ybor City Historic District
The Ybor City Historic District pronounce] is a U.S. National Historic Landmark District located in Tampa, Florida...
. Notable structures include El Centro Español
El Centro Espanol de Tampa
El Centro Español de Tampa is a historic building in the Ybor City neighborhood of Tampa, in the U.S. state of Florida. Built as an ethnic and cultural clubhouse in 1912, the red brick structure situated at 1526–1536 East 7th Avenue is today part of a shopping and entertainment complex...
and other social clubs built in the early 1900s.
History of Ybor City
Ybor City is a historic neighborhood in Tampa, Florida, located just northeast of downtown. It was founded as an independent town in 1885 by a group of cigar manufacturers led by Vicente Martinez-Ybor and was annexed by Tampa in 1887...
Babe Zaharias Golf Course in the Forest Hills
Forest Hills (Tampa), Florida
Forest Hills is a neighborhood partially within the city limits of Tampa, Florida, United States, with the northern portion located in unincorporated Hillsborough County near Lake Magdalene. The area was mainly a citrus grove until development began in the 1950s and 1960s. It contains the Babe...
area of Tampa has been designated a Historical Landmark by the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. It was bought in 1949 by the famous 'Babe'
Babe Zaharias
Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias was an American athlete who achieved outstanding success in golf, basketball, and track and field...
, who had a residence nearby, and closed upon her death. In 1974, the city of Tampa opened the golf course to the public.
The Story of Tampa, a public painting by Lynn Ash, is a 4' × 8' oil on masonite mural that weaves together many of the notable aspects of Tampa's unique character and identity. It was commissioned in 2003 by the city's Public Art Program and can be found in the lobby of the Tampa Municipal Office Building.
Park Tower
Park Tower (Tampa, Florida)
Park Tower is a skyscraper located in downtown Tampa, Florida. It is the second-oldest high-rise building in the current Tampa skyline. When the building was finished in November 1973, it was the tallest in Tampa, and the third-tallest in all of Florida, at 460 feet...
(originally the First Financial Bank of Florida) is the first substantial skyscraper in downtown Tampa. Completed in 1973, it was the tallest skyscraper in Tampa until the completion of One Tampa City Center in 1981. The Rivergate building, a cylindrical building known as the "Beer Can building", was featured in the movie "The Punisher"
The Punisher (2004 film)
The Punisher is a 2004 American comic book action film, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, starring Thomas Jane as the antihero Frank Castle / The Punisher and John Travolta as the villain Howard Saint, a money launderer who orders the death of Castle's entire family...
.
Spanning the southern part of Tampa Bay, is the massive steel-span Sunshine Skyway Bridge
Sunshine Skyway Bridge
The Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge is a bridge spanning Tampa Bay, Florida, with a cable-stayed main span, and a total length of 21,877 feet . It is part of I-275 and US 19 , connecting St. Petersburg in Pinellas County and Terra Ceia in Manatee County, Florida, passing through Hillsborough...
.
Government
Tampa is governed under the strong mayor form of government. The Mayor of Tampa is the chief executive officer of city government and is elected in four-year terms, with a limit of two consecutive terms. The current mayor is Bob BuckhornBob Buckhorn
Bob Buckhorn is the mayor of Tampa, Florida.-Political history:A 1980 graduate of Penn State University, Bob Buckhorn arrived in Tampa in 1982...
, who took office on April 1, 2011.
The City Council
Tampa City Council
The Tampa City Council is the legislative body of the municipal government of the U.S. city of Tampa, in Hillsborough County, Florida. The City Council consists of seven members, each representing one of seven corresponding districts from which they were elected...
is a legislative body served by seven members, in which four are elected from specific areas of town and the other three are "at-large
At-Large
At-large is a designation for representative members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent the whole membership of the body , rather than a subset of that membership...
" (serving citywide).
Education
Primary and secondary schools
Public primary and secondary education is operated by Hillsborough County Public SchoolsHillsborough County Public Schools
Hillsborough County Public Schools, Florida is a school district headquartered in Tampa, Florida. It is more commonly referred to as the School District of Hillsborough County, or SDHC....
, officially known as the School District of Hillsborough County (SDHC). It is ranked the eighth largest school district in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, with around 189,469 enrolled students. SDHC runs 208 schools, 133 being elementary, 42 middle, 27 High Schools, two K-8's, and four career centers. There are 73 additional schools in the district that are charter, ESE, alternative, etc. Twelve out of 25 high schools in the SDHC are included in Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
s list of America's Best High Schools.
Public libraries
Tampa's library system is operated by the Tampa-Hillsborough Public Library System. THPLS operates 28 libraries throughout Tampa and Hillsborough County, including the John F. Germany Main Library in Downtown Tampa. The Tampa library system first started in the early 20th century, with the West Tampa Library, which was made possible with funds donated by Andrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-American industrialist, businessman, and entrepreneur who led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century...
.
Higher education
There are a number of institutions of higher education in Tampa. The city is home to the main campus of the University of South FloridaUniversity of South Florida
The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...
(USF), a member of the State University System of Florida
State University System of Florida
The State University System of Florida is a system of eleven public universities in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2011, over 320,000 students were enrolled in Florida's state universities...
founded in 1956. In 2010, it was the eleventh highest individual campus enrollment in the US with over 46,000 students. Its mascot is Rocky The Bull
Rocky the Bull
Rocky the Bull is the mascot of University of South Florida's USF Bulls athletics...
, with green and gold as his colors. The University of Tampa
University of Tampa
The University of Tampa , is a private, co-educational university in Downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 2006, the University celebrated its 75th anniversary...
(UT) is a private, four-year liberal arts institution
Liberal arts college
A liberal arts college is one with a primary emphasis on undergraduate study in the liberal arts and sciences.Students in the liberal arts generally major in a particular discipline while receiving exposure to a wide range of academic subjects, including sciences as well as the traditional...
. Founded in 1931 and located across the Hillsborough River
Hillsborough River (Florida)
The Hillsborough River is a river located in the state of Florida in the USA. It arises in the Green Swamp near the juncture of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties, and flows through Pasco and Hillsborough Counties to an outlet in the city of Tampa on Tampa Bay. The name Hillsborough River first...
from downtown Tampa, UT has over 6,500 students attending. Its mascot is the Sparta
Sparta
Sparta or Lacedaemon, was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece, situated on the banks of the River Eurotas in Laconia, in south-eastern Peloponnese. It emerged as a political entity around the 10th century BC, when the invading Dorians subjugated the local, non-Dorian population. From c...
n, with scarlet
Scarlet (color)
Scarlet is a bright red color with a hue that is somewhat toward the orange. It is redder than vermilion. It is a pure chroma on the color wheel one-fourth of the way between red and orange. Scarlet is sometimes used as the color of flame...
, black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
, and gold
Gold (color)
Gold, also called golden, is one of a variety of orange-yellow color blends used to give the impression of the color of the element gold....
as its school colors. Hillsborough Community College
Hillsborough Community College
Hillsborough Community College is a two-year community college, located in Hillsborough County, Florida. The college has six campuses located throughout the county. Locations include: Brandon, Dale Mabry, Plant City, Ybor City, MacDill AFB, and South Shore...
is a two-year community college
Community college
A community college is a type of educational institution. The term can have different meanings in different countries.-Australia:Community colleges carry on the tradition of adult education, which was established in Australia around mid 19th century when evening classes were held to help adults...
in the Florida College System with campuses in Tampa and Hillsborough County.
Other colleges and universities in the wider Tampa Bay Area include Eckerd College
Eckerd College
Eckerd College is a private 4-year coeducational liberal arts college at the southernmost tip of St. Petersburg, Florida, in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area. The college is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.- Campus :...
and St. Petersburg College
St. Petersburg College
St. Petersburg College is a fully accredited post-secondary educational institution located in St. Petersburg, Florida, serving some 65,000 students annually...
in St. Petersburg.
- Southwest Florida College - (Tampa)
Economy
Retail
Retail consists of the sale of physical goods or merchandise from a fixed location, such as a department store, boutique or kiosk, or by mail, in small or individual lots for direct consumption by the purchaser. Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be...
, finance, insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
, shipping
Shipping
Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...
by air and sea, national defense
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
, professional sports
Professional sports
Professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, are sports in which athletes receive payment for their performance. Professional athleticism has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought larger audiences, so that sports organizations...
, tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
and real estate
Real estate
In general use, esp. North American, 'real estate' is taken to mean "Property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals, or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this; an item of real property; buildings or...
all play a vital role in the area's economy. Hillsborough County alone has an estimated 740,000 employees, a figure which is projected to increase to 922,000 by 2015. Many corporations, such as large banks and telecommunications companies, maintain regional offices in Tampa. Several Fortune 1000
Fortune 1000
Fortune 1000 is a reference to a list maintained by the American business magazine Fortune. The list is of the 1000 largest American companies, ranked on revenues alone...
companies are headquartered in the metropolitan area, including OSI Restaurant Partners, WellCare Health Plans, Inc., TECO Energy, and Raymond James Financial. MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base is an active United States Air Force base located approximately south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida...
also remains a major employer as the parent installation for over 15,000 active uniformed military, Department of Defense
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense is the U.S...
(DoD) civil service and DoD contractor personnel in the Tampa Bay area. A significant majority of the civil service and contractor personnel are, in fact, themselves retired career military personnel. In addition to the 6th Air Mobility Wing
6th Air Mobility Wing
The United States Air Force's 6th Air Mobility Wing is the host wing for MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. It is part of Air Mobility Command's Eighteenth Air Force....
, which is "host wing" for the base, MacDill is also home to Headquarters, United States Central Command
United States Central Command
The United States Central Command is a theater-level Unified Combatant Command unit of the U.S. armed forces, established in 1983 under the operational control of the U.S. Secretary of Defense...
(USCENTCOM), Headquarters, United States Special Operations Command
United States Special Operations Command
The United States Special Operations Command is the Unified Combatant Command charged with overseeing the various Special Operations Commands of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps of the United States Armed Forces. The command is part of the Department of Defense...
(USSOCOM), the 927th Air Refueling Wing
927th Air Refueling Wing
The 927th Air Refueling Wing is an Air Force Reserve Command flying unit, operationally-gained by the Air Mobility Command , located at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida-History:...
, Headquarters, United States Marine Forces Central Command
United States Marine Forces Central Command
Marine Forces Central Command commands all United States Marine Corps forces assigned to United States Central Command. They do not have any actual combat units but do command units that are attached from other Marine Commands...
(USMARCENT), Headquarters, United States Special Operations Command Central
United States Special Operations Command Central
The United States Special Operations Command Central is a subordinate unified command of joint forces for the U.S. Central Command...
(USSOCCENT), and numerous other military activities of the active and reserve components of the armed forces.
Downtown Tampa is undergoing significant development and redevelopment in line with a general national trend toward urban residential development. The Tampa Downtown Partnership notes development proceeding on 20 residential, hotel, and mixed-use projects as of April 2007. Many of the new downtown developments are nearing completion in the midst of a housing market slump, which has caused numerous projects to be delayed or revamped, and some of the 20 projects TDP lists have not broken ground and are being refinanced. Nonetheless several developments are nearing completion, which city leaders hope will make downtown into a 24-hour neighborhood instead of 9 to 5 business district. As it stands, Tampa residents face a decline in rent which has decreased an average of 2% next year. Nationally rent has decreased 4%.
Tampa's port is now the seventh largest in the nation and Florida’s largest tonnage port, handling nearly half of all seaborne commerce that passes through the state. Tampa currently ranks second in the state behind Miami in terms of cruise ship travel. Besides smaller regional cruise ships such as Yacht Starship and SunCruz Casino, Tampa also serves as a port of call for three cruise lines: Holland America's MS Veendam, Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas, and Carnival's Legend and Inspiration.
The main server farm
Server farm
A server farm or server cluster is a collection of computer servers usually maintained by an enterprise to accomplish server needs far beyond the capability of one machine. Server farms often have backup servers, which can take over the function of primary servers in the event of a primary server...
for Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
and other Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation
Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is an American non-profit charitable organization headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, and organized under the laws of the state of Florida, where it was initially based...
projects is located in Tampa.
Healthcare and utilities
Tampa and its surrounding suburbs are host to over 20 hospitals and four trauma centers. Three of the area's hospitals were ranked among "America's best hospitals" by US News and World Report. It is also home to many health research institutions.Media
Major daily newspapers serving the city are The Tampa TribuneThe Tampa Tribune
The Tampa Tribune, published in Tampa, Florida, is one of two major newspapers published in the Tampa Bay area, second in circulation and readership to the St. Petersburg Times. The paper's tagline is "Life...
and The St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
. La Gaceta is the nation's only trilingual newspaper, written in English, Spanish and Italian. There is also a wide variety of smaller regional newspapers, alternative weeklies and magazines, including the Florida Sentinel Bulletin
Florida Sentinel Bulletin
The Florida Sentinel Bulletin is a Florida bi-weekly newspaper serving the Tampa Bay Area African-American community.-History:In 1919, General William W. Andrews opened the Florida Sentinel office in Jacksonville, Florida. Later, the office closed due to the Great Depression. In 1945, General...
, Creative Loafing
Creative Loafing
CL Inc. is the Tampa, Florida-based publisher of three city newsweeklies and their associated websites. Each of the papers focuses on local news, politics, arts and entertainment, and restaurants...
, Reax Music Magazine
Reax Music Magazine
Reax Music Magazine is a Tampa-based music and art magazine first published by Joel Cook in 2006. Reax's distribution reaches nearly twenty markets throughout the state of Florida, including Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Tallahasee, Miami, and Pensacola...
, Tampa Bay Times, The Oracle
The Oracle (University of South Florida)
The Oracle, the University of South Florida's student-run newspaper, made history when its premier issue was published September 6, 1966...
, Tampa Bay Business Journal and MacDill Thunderbolt. Major television affiliates include WFTS 28 (ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
), WTSP
WTSP
WTSP is a CBS-affiliated television station in St. Petersburg, Florida . It broadcasts its digital signal on VHF channel 10....
10 (CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
), WFLA
WFLA-TV
WFLA-TV, virtual channel 8, is the NBC-affiliated television station in Tampa/St. Petersburg, Florida. The station is the flagship station of its owner and operator, Media General. Its transmitter is located in Riverview, Hillsborough County, Florida. WFLA is the only station in the market to be...
8 (NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
), WTVT
WTVT
WTVT, channel 13, is a television station in Tampa, Florida. It is an owned and operated station of the Fox Broadcasting Company, a subsidiary of the News Corporation...
13 (Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
), WTOG
WTOG
WTOG, channel 44, is a television station in St. Petersburg, Florida. Owned by the CBS Corporation, WTOG serves as the Tampa Bay Area station for the co-owned The CW Television Network. Its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.-Early years:...
44 (The CW
The CW Television Network
The CW Television Network is a television network in the United States launched at the beginning of the 2006–2007 television season. It is a joint venture between CBS Corporation, the former owners of United Paramount Network , and Time Warner's Warner Bros., former majority owner of The WB...
), WTTA
WTTA
WTTA is the MyNetworkTV-affiliated television station for the Tampa Bay Area of Florida that is licensed to St. Petersburg. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 32 from a transmitter in Riverview. Owned by Bay Television, the station is operated by the Sinclair Broadcast...
38 (MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV
MyNetworkTV is a television broadcast syndication service in the United States, owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, a division of News Corporation...
) and WVEA
WVEA-TV
WVEA-TV is the Univision affiliate for Tampa Bay, Florida, licensed to Venice. The station is owned by Entravision Communications, and also operates Telefutura affiliate WFTT-TV. The two stations share studios on Hillsborough Avenue in Tampa, in a former Barnett Bank building west of Armenia Avenue...
62 (Univision
Univision
Univision is a Spanish-language television network in the United States. It has the largest audience of Spanish language television viewers according to Nielsen ratings. Randy Falco, COO, has been in charge of the company since the departure of Univision Communications president and CEO Joe Uva...
).
Infrastructure
Utilities
Water in the area is managed by the Southwest Florida Water Management DistrictSouthwest Florida Water Management District
The Southwest Florida Water Management District , unofficially nicknamed “Swiftmud” or SWFWMD, is one of five regional agencies directed by Florida state law to protect and preserve water resources. Established in 1961 the agency operates and maintains several large properties and flood protection...
. The water is mainly supplied by the Hillsborough River
Hillsborough River (Florida)
The Hillsborough River is a river located in the state of Florida in the USA. It arises in the Green Swamp near the juncture of Hillsborough, Pasco and Polk counties, and flows through Pasco and Hillsborough Counties to an outlet in the city of Tampa on Tampa Bay. The name Hillsborough River first...
, which in turn arises from the Green Swamp
Green Swamp (Florida)
The Green Swamp is a swamp in Florida. It lies west of Highway 27 in Polk, Lake, Sumter, Hernando and Pasco Counties. The headwaters of the Peace River, Withlacoochee River, Ocklawaha River, and Hillsborough River are located here....
, but several other rivers and desalination
Desalination
Desalination, desalinization, or desalinisation refers to any of several processes that remove some amount of salt and other minerals from saline water...
plants in the area contribute to the supply. Power is mainly generated by TECO Energy.
Phone service is provided by Verizon and Bright House Networks
Bright House Networks
Bright House Networks is a cable television company, the seventh largest cable operator and the sixth largest traditional multiple system operator in the United States owned by Advance/Newhouse, headquartered in Syracuse, New York...
. Cable TV and internet are also provided by these companies.
Roads
Three motor vehicle bridgeBridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
s cross Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and estuary along the Gulf of Mexico on the west central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay."Tampa Bay" is not the name of any municipality...
to Pinellas County
Pinellas County, Florida
Pinellas County is a county located in the state of Florida. Its county seat is Clearwater, Florida, and its largest city is St. Petersburg. This county is contained entirely within the telephone area code 727, except for some sections of Oldsmar, which have the area code 813...
: the Howard Frankland Bridge
Howard Frankland Bridge
The W. Howard Frankland Bridge is the central bridge spanning Old Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg, Florida to Tampa, Florida. It is one of three bridges connecting Hillsborough County and Pinellas County; the others being Gandy Bridge and Courtney Campbell Causeway...
(I-275
Interstate 275 (Florida)
Interstate 275 in Florida serves the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, measuring 60.696 miles in length. The southern terminus is I-75 near Palmetto, just five miles east of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, a toll bridge crossing Tampa Bay. The highway passes through St...
), the Courtney Campbell Causeway (SR-60) and the Gandy Bridge
Gandy Bridge
Gandy Bridge is the southernmost bridge spanning Old Tampa Bay from St. Petersburg, Florida to Tampa, Florida. Almost three miles long, it is one of three bridges connecting Hillsborough County and Pinellas County; the others being the Howard Frankland Bridge and the Courtney Campbell...
(US 92). The old Gandy Bridge was completely replaced by new spans during the 1990s, but a span of the old bridge was saved and converted into a pedestrian and biking bridge renamed The Friendship Trail. It is the longest overwater recreation trail in the world. However, the bridge was closed in 2008 due to structural problems.
There are two major expressways (toll) bringing traffic in and out of Tampa. The Lee Roy Selmon Expressway (SR-618) (formerly known as the Crosstown Expressway), runs from suburban Brandon
Brandon, Florida
Brandon is a census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a total population of 103,483.-Founding:...
at its eastern terminus, through Downtown Tampa, to the neighborhoods in South Tampa (near MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base is an active United States Air Force base located approximately south-southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida...
) at its western terminus. The Veterans Expressway (SR-589), meanwhile connects Tampa International Airport
Tampa International Airport
Tampa International Airport is a major public airport located six nautical miles west of the central business district of Tampa, in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. This airport is publicly owned by Hillsborough County Aviation Authority...
and the bay bridges to the northwestern suburbs of Carrollwood
Carrollwood, Florida
Carrollwood is an unincorporated community in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. Although a separate community, it is a part of the census-designated place of Greater Carrollwood. The ZIP code for the community is 33618...
, Northdale
Greater Northdale, Florida
Greater Northdale is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 20,461 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Greater Northdale is located at ....
, Westchase
Westchase, Florida
Westchase is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 11,116 as of the 2000 census. The Census area is co-extensive with the ZIP code that serves the area . Westchase is also one of the wealthiest areas of Hillsborough County.-...
, Citrus Park
Citrus Park, Florida
Citrus Park is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 24,252 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Citrus Park is located at , or about nine miles northwest of Tampa...
, Cheval
Cheval, Florida
Cheval is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 10,702 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Cheval is located at ....
, and Lutz
Lutz, Florida
Lutz is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. The population was 19,344 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Lutz is located at ....
, before continuing north as the Suncoast Parkway into Pasco
Pasco County, Florida
Pasco County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 344,765. The July 1, 2007 census estimate according to the U.S. Census Bureau for the county is 462,715. Its county seat is Dade City, Florida which is in the northeast part of the county - somewhat...
and Hernando
Hernando County, Florida
Hernando County is a county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of 2000, the population was 130,802. The U.S. Census Bureau 2006 estimate for the county is 165,409 . Its county seat is Brooksville, Florida. The majority of the county's population is in Spring Hill, west portion of Hernando...
counties.
Three interstate highways
Interstate Highway System
The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, , is a network of limited-access roads including freeways, highways, and expressways forming part of the National Highway System of the United States of America...
run through the city. Interstate 4
Interstate 4
Interstate 4 is a intrastate Highway located entirely within the state of Florida, United States. It goes from Interstate 275 in Tampa, Florida to Interstate 95 at Daytona Beach, Florida . It also has the Florida Department of Transportation designation of State Road 400, but only a small...
and Interstate 275
Interstate 275 (Florida)
Interstate 275 in Florida serves the Tampa Bay metropolitan area, measuring 60.696 miles in length. The southern terminus is I-75 near Palmetto, just five miles east of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, a toll bridge crossing Tampa Bay. The highway passes through St...
cut across the city and intersect near downtown. Interstate 75
Interstate 75 in Florida
Interstate 75 is a part of the Interstate Highway System and runs from Hialeah, Florida, a few miles northwest of Miami to Sault Ste. Marie in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan...
runs along the east side of town for much of its route through Hillsborough County
Hillsborough County, Florida
As of the census of 2000, there were 998,948 people, 391,357 households, and 255,164 families residing in the county. The population density was 951 people per square mile . There were 425,962 housing units at an average density of 405 per square mile...
until veering to the west to bisect New Tampa.
Along with highways, major surface roads serves as main arteries of the city. These roads are Hillsborough Avenue
Hillsborough Avenue
Hillsborough Avenue is a major east–west arterial road in Hillsborough County, Florida, also designated as State Road 580, U.S. Highway 41 or U.S. Highway 92 in various places.-Route description:...
(US 92
U.S. Route 92
U.S. Route 92 is a 177 mile intrastate U.S. Route in the U.S. state of Florida. The western terminus is at Alt US 19, SR 595, and SR 687 in downtown St. Petersburg. The eastern terminus is at SR A1A in Daytona Beach. Most of US 92 is designated unsigned State Road 600.-Route description:US 92...
& US 41), Dale Mabry Highway
Dale Mabry Highway
Dale Mabry Highway is a north–south road in Tampa, Florida. The majority of its length consists of three lanes each direction plus a central turn-lane and often includes a right-turn lane. It begins at the MacDill Air Force Base entrance in South Tampa and ends by merging with US 41 just...
(US 92
U.S. Route 92
U.S. Route 92 is a 177 mile intrastate U.S. Route in the U.S. state of Florida. The western terminus is at Alt US 19, SR 595, and SR 687 in downtown St. Petersburg. The eastern terminus is at SR A1A in Daytona Beach. Most of US 92 is designated unsigned State Road 600.-Route description:US 92...
), Nebraska Avenue (US 41), Florida Avenue (US 41 Business), Bruce B. Downs Boulevard
Bruce B. Downs Boulevard
State Road 581, also known as Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, is a 3.6-mile north–south road in Pasco County, extending from State Road 56, north to SR 54 in Wesley Chapel...
, Fowler Avenue, Busch Boulevard, Kennedy Boulevard, Adamo Drive, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
Airports
Tampa holds a unique distinction in the history of aviationAviation
Aviation is the design, development, production, operation, and use of aircraft, especially heavier-than-air aircraft. Aviation is derived from avis, the Latin word for bird.-History:...
, a status gained just ten years after the Wright Brothers
Wright brothers
The Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur , were two Americans credited with inventing and building the world's first successful airplane and making the first controlled, powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight, on December 17, 1903...
first took flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. On January 1, 1914, pioneering aviator Tony Jannus
Tony Jannus
Antony Habersack Jannus, more familiarly known as Tony Jannus , was an early American pilot whose aerial exploits were widely publicized in aviation's pre-World War I period. He flew the first airplane from which a parachute jump was made, in 1912. Jannus was also the first airline pilot, having...
captained the inaugural flight of the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line
St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line
The St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line was the first scheduled airline using a winged aircraft.The airline provided service between St. Petersburg, Florida and neighboring Tampa.-Overview:...
, the world's first commercial passenger airline
Passenger airline
A passenger airline is an airline dedicated to the transport of passengers. Cf. cargo airline. Passenger airlines usually operate a fleet of passenger aircraft which, rather than being owned outright, are usually leased from commercial aircraft sales and leasing companies such as GECAS and...
. The airline flew scheduled flights from downtown St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
, across the bay to just south of where Tampa International Airport
Tampa International Airport
Tampa International Airport is a major public airport located six nautical miles west of the central business district of Tampa, in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. This airport is publicly owned by Hillsborough County Aviation Authority...
sits today, carrying just the pilot and a single passenger in a flying boat biplane. The airline's historic significance is officially recognized by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution holds the largest collection of historic aircraft and spacecraft in the world. It was established in 1976. Located in Washington, D.C., United States, it is a center for research into the history and science of aviation and...
, and its pilot is memorialized annually by the awarding of the Tony Jannus Award
Tony Jannus Award
The Tony Jannus Award recognizes outstanding individual achievement in scheduled commercial aviation by airline executives, inventors and manufacturers, and government leaders. The award is conferred annually by the Tony Jannus Distinguished Aviation Society and was first bestowed in 1964 in Tampa,...
to individuals of outstanding achievement in scheduled commercial aviation
Commercial aviation
Commercial aviation is the part of civil aviation that involves operating aircraft for hire to transport passengers or cargo...
. A permanent exhibit honoring the award recipients is maintained at Tampa International Airport, which also hosts a 12.5 feet (3.8 m) painted mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
from the 1930s titled, History’s First Scheduled Airline Passenger Arrives in Tampa, depicting the events of New Year's Day, 1914.
Tampa International AirportTampa International AirportTampa International Airport is a major public airport located six nautical miles west of the central business district of Tampa, in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. This airport is publicly owned by Hillsborough County Aviation Authority...
(IATAIATA airport codeAn IATA airport code, also known an IATA location identifier, IATA station code or simply a location identifier, is a three-letter code designating many airports around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association...
: TPA, ICAOICAO airport codeThe ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-character alphanumeric code designating each airport around the world. These codes are defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and published in ICAO Document 7910: Location Indicators.The ICAO codes are used by air traffic...
: KTPA) is Tampa's main airport and the primary location for commercial passenger airline service into the Tampa Bay area. It is also a consistent favorite in surveys of the industry and the traveling public. The readers of Condé Nast TravelerCondé Nast TravelerCondé Nast Traveler is a US magazine published by Condé Nast. It has its origins in a mailing sent out by the Diners Club club beginning in 1953, listing locations that would take the card. It began taking advertising in 1955. In order to attract more advertisers, it became a full-fledged magazine,...
have frequently placed Tampa International in their list of Best Airports, ranking it #1 in 2003, and #2 in 2008 A survey by Zagat in 2007 ranked Tampa International first among U.S. airports in overall quality. During 2008, it was the 26th-busiest airport in North America.- Peter O. Knight AirportPeter O. Knight AirportPeter O. Knight Airport is an airport on Davis Islands, five minutes from downtown Tampa, Florida. Built as a Works Progress Administration project, it was Tampa's main airport from 1935 to 1945, and is still used by general aviation operators today because of its proximity to the central city....
(IATAIATA airport codeAn IATA airport code, also known an IATA location identifier, IATA station code or simply a location identifier, is a three-letter code designating many airports around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association...
: TPF, ICAOICAO airport codeThe ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-character alphanumeric code designating each airport around the world. These codes are defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and published in ICAO Document 7910: Location Indicators.The ICAO codes are used by air traffic...
: KTPF)is a small general aviation terminal located on Davis Islands near downtown. - Tampa Executive AirportTampa Executive AirportTampa Executive Airport , formerly known as Vandenberg Airport, is located in unincorporated Hillsborough County, Florida, six nautical miles east of the central business district of Tampa....
(IATAIATA airport codeAn IATA airport code, also known an IATA location identifier, IATA station code or simply a location identifier, is a three-letter code designating many airports around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association...
: VDF, ICAOICAO airport codeThe ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-character alphanumeric code designating each airport around the world. These codes are defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and published in ICAO Document 7910: Location Indicators.The ICAO codes are used by air traffic...
: KVDF), formerly known as Vandenberg Airport, is another option for general aviation fliers. The airport is located east of Tampa in Hillsborough County, near the interchange of I-4Interstate 4Interstate 4 is a intrastate Highway located entirely within the state of Florida, United States. It goes from Interstate 275 in Tampa, Florida to Interstate 95 at Daytona Beach, Florida . It also has the Florida Department of Transportation designation of State Road 400, but only a small...
and I-75. - St. Petersburg-Clearwater International AirportSt. Petersburg-Clearwater International AirportSt. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport is a joint civil-military airport located in unincorporated Pinellas County, Florida, north of St. Petersburg, serving St...
(IATAIATA airport codeAn IATA airport code, also known an IATA location identifier, IATA station code or simply a location identifier, is a three-letter code designating many airports around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association...
: PIE, ICAOICAO airport codeThe ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-character alphanumeric code designating each airport around the world. These codes are defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and published in ICAO Document 7910: Location Indicators.The ICAO codes are used by air traffic...
: KPIE) lies just across the bay from Tampa International Airport in neighboring Pinellas County. Though mainly a general aviationGeneral aviationGeneral aviation is one of the two categories of civil aviation. It refers to all flights other than military and scheduled airline and regular cargo flights, both private and commercial. General aviation flights range from gliders and powered parachutes to large, non-scheduled cargo jet flights...
facility, the airport has become a popular destination for passenger service by discount and charter carriers. A joint civil-military aviation facility, it is also home to Coast Guard Air Station ClearwaterCoast Guard Air Station ClearwaterUnited States Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater is the United States Coast Guard's largest air station. It is located at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport in Clearwater, Florida and is home to nearly 600 USCG aviation and support personnel...
, the largest air station in the U.S. Coast Guard.
Railroads
The railroad legacy brought to Tampa by Henry Plant continues to serve the city. Uceta Rail YardUceta Yard
Uceta Yard is a rail yard in non-residential section within the city limits of Tampa. The ZIP Code serving the community is 33619.-History:Uceta Yard was the primary classification yard for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in central Florida...
was established by Plant System
Plant System
The Plant System was a system of railroads and steamboats in the U.S. South, taken over by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. The original line of the system, named after its owner, Henry B...
corporate descendant, Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was an American railroad that existed between 1900 and 1967, when it merged with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, its long-time rival, to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad...
, in the industrial sector on Tampa's east side, between Gary
Gary, Tampa, Florida
Gary is an industrial section located in the southeastern part of Tampa, Florida, mainly in the vicinity of Adamo Drive east of Downtown Tampa.-Geography:...
and Brandon
Brandon, Florida
Brandon is a census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the CDP had a total population of 103,483.-Founding:...
. It continues to service CSX as a storage and intermodal freight transport
Intermodal freight transport
Intermodal freight transport involves the transportation of freight in an intermodal container or vehicle, using multiple modes of transportation , without any handling of the freight itself when changing modes. The method reduces cargo handling, and so improves security, reduces damages and...
facility today. Freight and container
Intermodal container
An intermodal container is a standardized reusable steel box used for the safe, efficient and secure storage and movement of materials and products within a global containerized intermodal freight transport system...
cargo operations at the city's seaports also depend upon dockside rail facilities.
Since 1912, Tampa's intercity passenger rail service has been based at Tampa Union Station. The historic facility, adjacent to downtown between the Channel District and Ybor City
Ybor City, Tampa, Florida
Ybor City is a historic neighborhood in Tampa, Florida located just northeast of downtown. It was founded in the 1880s by cigar manufacturers and was populated by thousands of immigrants, mainly from Spain, Cuba, and Italy...
, is served by Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
today. Amtrak's Silver Star calls on Tampa twice daily: number 91 southbound to Miami
Miami (Amtrak station)
Miami is a train station on the southern end of two popular inter-city trains, the Amtrak Silver Meteor and Silver Star. The station is located in Miami-Dade County, Florida, on the border of Miami and Hialeah, ten miles northwest of downtown Miami...
and number 92 northbound for New York City
Pennsylvania Station (New York City)
Pennsylvania Station—commonly known as Penn Station—is the major intercity train station and a major commuter rail hub in New York City. It is one of the busiest rail stations in the world, and a hub for inbound and outbound railroad traffic in New York City. The New York City Subway system also...
.
Union Station also serves as the transfer hub for Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach service, offering bus connections to several cities in Southwest Florida
Southwest Florida
Southwest Florida is a region of Florida , United States located along its gulf coast, south of the Tampa Bay area, west of Lake Okeechobee and mostly north of the Everglades...
, as well as to Orlando
Orlando (Amtrak station)
The Orlando Amtrak station lies south of Downtown Orlando, about a mile south of the old stations at Church Street and Central Boulevard. It was built in 1926 by M. A. Griffith and W. T. Hadlow for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in the Spanish Mission style, and used by the Seaboard Coast Line...
for transfers to the northbound Silver Meteor
Silver Meteor
The Silver Meteor is a 1389-mile passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the Silver Service brand, running from New York City, New York, south to Miami, Florida, via the Northeast Corridor to Washington, D.C., thence via Richmond, Virginia; Fayetteville, North Carolina; North Charleston, South...
.
High speed rail
Tampa was to be the site of a high speed rail line which would have run between downtown and the Orlando area, and eventually to Miami and southern Florida. Construction of the line was slated to begin in 2011, with the initial phase completed by 2014. Governor Scott, however, cancelled the plan in March 2011.
Seaports
Since Tampa Bay was first spotted by Spanish explorers in the 16th century, sailors have admired its wide, sheltered beauty. However, its shallow nature has always presented a navigability problem; the bay is less than 30 feet (9.1 m) deep almost everywhere and considerably less than that in many places near the coast, including the approach to the city of Tampa. By the late 19th century, typical cargo ships had grown large enough that they were not able to navigate upper Tampa Bay and reach the ports of Tampa at all.In 1899, however, the US Congress authorized the dredging of a 27' deep channel to Port Tampa, Henry Plant's rail-to-ship facility just west of Tampa. In 1917, another channel was dredged out to the Port of Tampa
Port of Tampa
The Port of Tampa is located on the western coast or Suncoast of Florida, approximately 25 miles from open waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The boundaries of the Port district includes parts of Tampa Bay, Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay and the Hillsborough River.The port of Tampa is the...
proper, instantly making Tampa an important shipping location.
The bay bottom is very sandy, and the ship channels need constant dredging to keep them navigable to the largest modern cargo ships. Every year, the US Army Corps of Engineers dredge up enough sediment from the bay to fill Raymond James Stadium
Raymond James Stadium
Raymond James Stadium, also known as the "Ray Jay", is a multi-purpose football stadium located in Tampa, Florida. It is home to the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well as the NCAA's South Florida Bulls football team. The stadium seats 65,857 , and it is expandable to 75,000 for special events...
10 times.
Today, the Port of Tampa is the largest port in Florida in throughput tonnage, making it one of the busiest commercial ports in North America. Petroleum and phosphate are the lead commodities, accounting for two-thirds of the 37 million tons of total bulk and general cargo handled by the port in 2009.
The Tampa Port Authority currently operates three cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
terminals in Tampa's Channel District
Channel District, Tampa
Channelside is a residential and entertainment district just east of Downtown Tampa, Florida, USA. It is bordered by Ybor Channel on the east and Garrison Channel on the south...
. The Port of Tampa is the year-round home port for Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Cruise Lines
Carnival Cruise Lines is a British-American owned cruise line, based in Doral, Florida, a suburb of Miami in the United States. Originally an independent company founded in 1972 by Ted Arison, the company is now one of eleven cruise ship brands owned and operated by Carnival Corporation & plc...
' MS Carnival Inspiration and MS Carnival Legend
Carnival Legend
Carnival Legend is a Spirit class cruise ship operated by Carnival Cruise Lines. It was built by Kvaerner Masa-Yards which was a subsidiary of Kvaerner, in Helsinki, Finland. It was launched on December 17, 2001, and delivered to Carnival on 14 August 2002.Carnival Legend currently offers a 7-day...
. In 2010, Tampa will also be a seasonal port for Holland America Line
Holland America Line
The Holland America Line is a cruise shipping company. It was founded in 1873 as the Netherlands-America Steamship Company , a shipping and passenger line. Headquartered in Rotterdam and providing service to the Americas, it became known as Holland America Line...
's MS Ryndam
MS Ryndam
Ryndam is a cruise ship owned and operated by Holland America Line that is named for a dam on the Rhine River. She offers enhanced amenities and services and is designed to carry fewer passengers than other ships in her class...
, as well as Royal Caribbean International
Royal Caribbean International
Royal Caribbean International is a Norwegian and American cruise line brand based in Miami, Florida and owned by Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.. With 42 ships in service under 5 different brands and one more under construction, it controls a 25.6% share of the world cruise market...
's MS Grandeur of the Seas and MS Radiance of the Seas. A fourth company, Norwegian Cruise Line
Norwegian Cruise Line
Norwegian Cruise Line is a company operating cruise ships, headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida. It began operations in 1966 under the name Norwegian Caribbean Line. The company is best known for its Freestyle Cruising concept, which means that there are no set times or...
, has announced plans to sail out of Tampa for the first time. The 2,240 passenger MS Norwegian Star will be Tampa's largest cruise ship when it debuts a seasonal schedule in 2011. Cruise itineraries from Tampa include stops in the Eastern and Western Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
islands, Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, Belize
Belize
Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official...
, and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
.
Mass transit
Public mass transit within Tampa is operated by the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit AuthorityHillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority
Hillsborough Area Regional Transit provides public transportation for Hillsborough County, Florida...
(HART), and includes public bus
Transit bus
A transit bus , also known as a commuter bus, city bus, or public bus, is a bus used for short-distance public transport purposes...
and paratransit
Paratransit
Paratransit is an alternative mode of flexible passenger transportation that does not follow fixed routes or schedules. Typically mini-buses are used to provide paratransit service, but also share taxis and jitneys are important providers....
service, as well as a streetcar line. The HART bus system's main hub is the Marion Transit Center in Downtown Tampa
Downtown Tampa
Image:Tampa_Skyline.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Downtown Tampa looking from the Hillsborough Riverpoly 2403 537 2441 500 2488 483 2516 455 2566 439 2597 410 2649 390 2682 358 2803 315 2949 342 2956 362 3068 383 3074 406 3202 431 3204 447 3332 473 3350 484 3485 1616 2446 1587 Wachovia Centerpoly 1745 1216...
, serving nearly 30 local and express routes. HART has a signed transit deal with the University of South Florida
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...
, allowing students to ride for free on most bus routes, while students from other schools may receive discounted fares.
In October, 2002, the TECO Line Streetcar System
TECO Line Streetcar System
The TECO Line Streetcar System is a streetcar line in Tampa, Florida, run by the Hillsborough Area Regional Transportation Authority and managed by Tampa Historic Streetcar, Inc.. It connects Downtown and Channelside to the historic Ybor City district. There is also an "In-Town" trolley-replica bus...
brought electric streetcar service back to Tampa for the first time in over half a century. The line operates from ten stations along a 2.4-mile (3.9-km) route, connecting Ybor City, the Channel District
Channel District, Tampa
Channelside is a residential and entertainment district just east of Downtown Tampa, Florida, USA. It is bordered by Ybor Channel on the east and Garrison Channel on the south...
, the Tampa Convention Center
Tampa Convention Center
The Tampa Convention Center is a mid-sized convention center located in Downtown Tampa, Florida. Its location has both waterfront views and views of the skyline. In 2006, a 20-story Embassy Suites hotel opened next door, with a skybridge connecting it to the convention center. Harbour Island is...
, and downtown Tampa. Work is currently underway to extend the line along Franklin Street to the Fort Brooke Parking Garage by December 2010. The TECO Line fleet features varnished wood interiors and other appointments reminiscent of the streetcars that traversed Tampa between the late 19th and mid-20th centuries. The nostalgic design is incorporated with modern functionality, as the cars are both wheelchair accessible and air conditioned.
Limited transportation by privately-operated "Neighborhood Electric Vehicle
Neighborhood electric vehicle
A Neighborhood Electric Vehicle is a U.S. denomination for battery electric vehicles that are legally limited to roads with posted speed limits as high as depending on the particular laws of the state, usually are built to have a top speed of , and have a maximum loaded weight of 3,000 lbs...
s" (NEV) is available, primarily in Downtown Tampa and Ybor City. Water taxi
Water taxi
A water taxi or water bus, also known as a commuter boat, is a watercraft used to provide public transport, usually but not always in an urban environment. Service may be scheduled with multiple stops, operating in a similar manner to a bus, or on demand to many locations, operating in a similar...
s are available on a charter basis for tours along the downtown waterfront and the Hillsborough River. Regular water taxi service may be possible in the future as docks and facilities are developed in conjunction with the Tampa Riverwalk.
In July 2007, the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority
Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority
The Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, or TBARTA, is a transportation agency of the U.S. state of Florida which was created on July 1, 2007...
(TBARTA) was formed to develop bus, light rail
Light rail
Light rail or light rail transit is a form of urban rail public transportation that generally has a lower capacity and lower speed than heavy rail and metro systems, but higher capacity and higher speed than traditional street-running tram systems...
, and other transportation options for the seven-county Tampa Bay area
Tampa Bay Area
The Tampa Bay Area is the region of west central Florida adjacent to Tampa Bay. Definitions of the region vary. It is often considered equivalent to the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area defined by the United States Census Bureau. The Census Bureau currently...
.
MacDill Air Force Base
MacDill Air Force Base, located in south Tampa, was constructed as MacDill Field just prior to World War II. During the 1950s and 1960s, it was a Strategic Air CommandStrategic Air Command
The Strategic Air Command was both a Major Command of the United States Air Force and a "specified command" of the United States Department of Defense. SAC was the operational establishment in charge of America's land-based strategic bomber aircraft and land-based intercontinental ballistic...
base for B-47 and B-52 bombers. In the 1960s, it transitioned to a Tactical Air Command
Tactical Air Command
Tactical Air Command is an inactive United States Air Force organization. It was a Major Command of the United States Air Force, established on 21 March 1946 being headquartered at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia...
installation for F-4 Phantom II
F-4 Phantom II
The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the United States Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. It first entered service in 1960 with the U.S. Navy. Proving highly adaptable,...
fighters, followed by F-16s in the 1980s. It is currently an Air Mobility Command
Air Mobility Command
Air Mobility Command is a Major Command of the U.S. Air Force. AMC is headquartered at Scott AFB, Illinois, east of St. Louis....
installation, home to the 6th Air Mobility Wing
6th Air Mobility Wing
The United States Air Force's 6th Air Mobility Wing is the host wing for MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. It is part of Air Mobility Command's Eighteenth Air Force....
, and includes both the 310th Airlift Squadron, flying the C-37, and the 91st Air Refueling Squadron, flying the KC-135. MacDill AFB is also home to the headquarters for two of the U.S. military's joint warfighting commands: Headquarters, United States Central Command
United States Central Command
The United States Central Command is a theater-level Unified Combatant Command unit of the U.S. armed forces, established in 1983 under the operational control of the U.S. Secretary of Defense...
(CENTCOM), and Headquarters, United States Special Operations Command
United States Special Operations Command
The United States Special Operations Command is the Unified Combatant Command charged with overseeing the various Special Operations Commands of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps of the United States Armed Forces. The command is part of the Department of Defense...
(SOCOM). Both commands are independent from one another and each is commanded by a respective 4-star general or admiral. Like Tampa's seaport, MacDill AFB could also potentially be a target for terrorism.
The MacDill AFB flight line was temporarily closed and the 56th Fighter Wing
56th Fighter Wing
The 56th Fighter Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Education and Training Command's Nineteenth Air Force. It is stationed at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona where it also is the host unit....
transferred to Luke AFB, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
following the 1991 round of base closings under the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) discussions; at the time, the base was used for F-16 fighter training and operations and increasing level of civilian air traffic in the Tampa Bay area was considered detrimental to training. The noise produced by the fighter aircraft was also considered inappropriate in a densely populated area. However, despite committee recommendations, the base remained open to house and support CENTCOM and SOCOM under the cognizance of the newly-activated 6th Air Base Wing. With the disestablishment of Tactical Air Command a few months later, claimancy for MacDill passed to the newly-created Air Combat Command
Air Combat Command
Air Combat Command is a major command of the United States Air Force. ACC is one of ten major commands , reporting to Headquarters, United States Air Force ....
.
The MacDill flight line was initially reopened in 1992 to temporarily support F-16 aircraft from the 31st Fighter Wing
31st Fighter Wing
The 31st Fighter Wing is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the United States Air Forces in Europe Third Air Force. It is stationed at Aviano Air Base, Italy where it is also the host unit....
and the Air Force Reserve's 482d Fighter Wing
482d Fighter Wing
The 482d Fighter Wing is a unit of the United States Air Force assigned to the Air Force Reserve Command. It is the host wing at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida.-Mission:...
, following the destruction of their home station, Homestead AFB, Florida in the wake of Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew was the third Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States, after the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Andrew was the first named storm and only major hurricane of the otherwise inactive 1992 Atlantic hurricane season...
. In 1993, the MacDill flightline was permanently reopened for NOAA WP-3D "hurricane hunter" operations, which had relocated from Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport
Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the South Florida area...
.
In 1996, the 91st Air Refueling Squadron moved to MacDill from Malmstrom Air Force Base
Malmstrom Air Force Base
Malmstrom Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base and census-designated place in Cascade County, Montana, United States. It was named in honor of World War II POW Colonel Einar Axel Malmstrom...
, Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
, the 6th Air Base Wing was renamed the 6th Air Refueling Wing (later 6th Air Mobility Wing
6th Air Mobility Wing
The United States Air Force's 6th Air Mobility Wing is the host wing for MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. It is part of Air Mobility Command's Eighteenth Air Force....
) and the installation officially came under the Air Mobility Command
Air Mobility Command
Air Mobility Command is a Major Command of the U.S. Air Force. AMC is headquartered at Scott AFB, Illinois, east of St. Louis....
.
Approximately 14,000 people work at MacDill Air Force Base, with a significant number of military personnel and their families living on base in military housing, while remaining servicemembers and military families live off base in the Tampa Bay area. MacDill AFB is a significant contributor to Tampa's economy and the city is very supportive of the military community. In 2001 and 2003, the Tampa Bay area was awarded the Abilene Trophy
Abilene Trophy
The Abilene Trophy is awarded annually to the community in Air Mobility Command that is most supportive of its local Air Force Base.Formally known as the Air Mobility Command Community Support Award, it has been awarded since its establishment in 1998. The award's sponsor is the Abilene, Texas...
, which annually honors the most supportive Air Force city in Air Mobility Command
Air Mobility Command
Air Mobility Command is a Major Command of the U.S. Air Force. AMC is headquartered at Scott AFB, Illinois, east of St. Louis....
.
MacDill also hosts an annual air show that is enjoyed by thousands of spectators each year. However, there were no shows in 2002 and 2003 due to 9/11. The 2006 show was also canceled due to security concerns on base, but was reinstated in 2008. In 2008, pursuant to BRAC 2005, the Air Force Reserve Command
Air Force Reserve Command
The Air Force Reserve Command is a major command of the U.S. Air Force with its headquarters at Robins AFB, Georgia.It stood up as a major command of the Air Force on 17 February 1997....
's 927th Air Refueling Wing
927th Air Refueling Wing
The 927th Air Refueling Wing is an Air Force Reserve Command flying unit, operationally-gained by the Air Mobility Command , located at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida-History:...
(927 ARW) relocated without aircraft or equipment from Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Michigan to MacDill AFB, where it became an "Associate" wing to the 6th Air Mobility Wing
6th Air Mobility Wing
The United States Air Force's 6th Air Mobility Wing is the host wing for MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. It is part of Air Mobility Command's Eighteenth Air Force....
sharing the same KC-135R Stratotanker
KC-135 Stratotanker
The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is an aerial refueling military aircraft. It and the Boeing 707 airliner were developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype. The KC-135 was the US Air Force's first jet-powered refueling tanker and replaced the KC-97 Stratotanker...
aircraft.
Culture
Arts and entertainment
Tampa is home to a variety of stage and performing arts venues and theaters, including The David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, The Tampa TheatreTampa Theatre
The Tampa Theatre and Office Building is a historic U.S. theater and city landmark in the Uptown District of downtown Tampa, Florida. On January 3, 1978, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places....
, Gorilla Theatre
Gorilla Theatre
Gorilla Theatre is a performing arts venue in the Drew Park area of Tampa, Florida. Founded in 1990 by playwrights Aubrey Hampton and Susan Hussey, the 76-seat full-season theatre presents original dramas, musicals and revivals of classic works...
, and just east of the city, the 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre.
Performing arts companies and organizations which call Tampa home include The Florida Orchestra
The Florida Orchestra
The Florida Orchestra is a performing arts company located in Tampa Bay, Florida. It is one of the leading professional symphony orchestras in Florida, and one of the best regional orchestras in America....
, Opera Tampa
Opera Tampa
Opera Tampa is the resident opera company of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts .Now in its 15th season, Opera Tampa produces and presents grand opera...
, Jobsite Theater
Jobsite Theater
Jobsite Theater is an American professional theater company founded in 1998 located in Tampa, Florida, and is the resident theater company of the David A. Straz, Jr. Center for the Performing Arts . Co-founder David M. Jenkins serves as Producing Artistic Director.-History:Founded in 1998 by David M...
, The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, Stageworks Theatre
Stageworks Theatre
Stageworks Theatre is a theatre, based in the Tampa Bay Florida area, founded by Anna Brennen. To provide the highest quality professional theatre which respects, ignites and celebrates the human spirit while challenging the thresholds of intolerance and insensitivity.-History:Anna Brennen,...
, Spanish Lyric Theater, and the Tampa Bay Symphony.
Current popular nightlife districts include Channelside, Ybor City
Ybor City, Tampa, Florida
Ybor City is a historic neighborhood in Tampa, Florida located just northeast of downtown. It was founded in the 1880s by cigar manufacturers and was populated by thousands of immigrants, mainly from Spain, Cuba, and Italy...
, SoHo
Soho, Tampa, Florida
SoHo Tampa, short for "South Howard Avenue," is an entertainment district within the Hyde Park neighborhood of Tampa. Some of the main cross streets are Kennedy Boulevard , Cleveland Street, Platt Street and Swann Avenue. The area has some of the finest examples of architecture in the city...
, International Plaza and Bay Street
International Plaza and Bay Street
International Plaza and Bay Street is a large upscale shopping mall located in the Westshore business district of Tampa, Florida. The mall, which opened in 2001, was built to give travelers an option to shop and dine in high-class surroundings, while at the same time be able to stay near Tampa...
, and Seminole Hard Rock
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa is a gaming complex and four-diamond hotel that opened in Tampa, Florida in 2004. It is a 24-hour venue, with a nightclub that is open until 6 AM....
. Downtown Tampa
Downtown Tampa
Image:Tampa_Skyline.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Downtown Tampa looking from the Hillsborough Riverpoly 2403 537 2441 500 2488 483 2516 455 2566 439 2597 410 2649 390 2682 358 2803 315 2949 342 2956 362 3068 383 3074 406 3202 431 3204 447 3332 473 3350 484 3485 1616 2446 1587 Wachovia Centerpoly 1745 1216...
also contains some nightlife, and there are more clubs/bars to be found in other areas of the city. Tampa is rated sixth on Maxim magazine
Maxim (magazine)
Maxim is an international men's magazine based in the United Kingdom and known for its pictorials featuring popular actresses, singers, and female models, sometimes pictured dressed, often pictured scantily dressed but not fully nude....
's list of top party cities.
The area has become a "de-facto" headquarters of professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
, with many pros living in the area. WWE's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling
Florida Championship Wrestling
Championship Wrestling from Florida was the corporate and brand name of the Tampa, Florida wrestling office existing from 1961, when Eddie Graham first bought into the promotion, until 1987, when it closed down. It is also referred to as Florida Championship Wrestling...
, is also based in Tampa.
Tampa is home to several death metal
Death metal
Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, blast beat drumming, minor keys or atonality, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes....
bands, an extreme form of heavy metal music
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
that evolved from thrash metal
Thrash metal
Thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized usually by its fast tempo and aggression. Songs of the genre typically use fast percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work...
. Many of the genre's pioneers and foremost figures are based in and around the city. Chief among these are Cannibal Corpse
Cannibal Corpse
Cannibal Corpse is an American death metal band from Buffalo, New York. Formed in 1988, the band has released eleven studio albums, one box set, and one live album...
, Deicide
Deicide (band)
Deicide is an American death metal band formed in 1987. Their first two albums, Deicide and Legion, are ranked second and third place in best-selling death metal albums of the SoundScan era.-As Amon/Carnage :...
, Six Feet Under
Six Feet Under (band)
Six Feet Under is an American death metal band from Tampa, Florida, formed in 1993. The band was originally a side project by Cannibal Corpse vocalist Chris Barnes with guitarist Allen West of Obituary...
, Obituary
Obituary (band)
Obituary is an American death metal band formed in 1984 in Tampa, Florida under the name Executioner, then changed the name's spelling to Xecutioner, and later changed their name to Obituary in 1988. The band comprises vocalist John Tardy, drummer Donald Tardy, guitarists Trevor Peres and Ralph...
and Morbid Angel
Morbid Angel
Morbid Angel is an American death metal band based in Tampa, Florida. UK music magazine Terrorizer ranked one Morbid Angel album in its “Top 40 greatest death metal albums”, with their 1989 debut Altars of Madness appearing at number 1...
. The Tampa scene grew with the birth of Morrisound Recording
Morrisound Recording
Morrisound Recording is an audio recording facility in Temple Terrace, Florida, owned and operated by brothers Jim and Tom Morris. Since its opening in 1981, Morrisound has been responsible for the popularization of genres such as heavy metal and death metal, but of course caters to every genre of...
, which established itself as an international recording destination for metal bands.
The underground rock band, the Baskervils, got their start in Tampa. They played the Tampa Bay area between 1994–1997 and then moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Underground Hip-Hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
group Equilibrium is based out of Tampa, as well as the Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
metalcore
Metalcore
Metalcore is a subgenre of heavy metal combining various elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The name is a portmanteau of the names of the two genres. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands such as Earth Crisis, Deadguy and Integrity...
band, Underoath
Underoath
Underoath is an American Christian metalcore band from Tampa, Florida. Founded by Dallas Taylor and Luke Morton on November 30, 1997 in Ocala, Florida, subsequently its additional members were from Tampa, Florida...
.
In 2009, the new Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn
Frank Wildhorn is an American composer known for both his musicals and popular songs. He is most known for his musical Jekyll & Hyde, which ran four years on Broadway, and for writing the #1 International Hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" for Whitney Houston.-Early years:Wildhorn was born in...
musical Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure
Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure
Wonderland: A New Alice, formerly called Wonderland: Alice's New Musical Adventure, is a musical with a book by Jack Murphy and Gregory Boyd, lyrics by Murphy, and music by Frank Wildhorn...
hosted its world premiere at the Straz Center.
Museums
The Tampa area is home to a number of museums that cover a wide array of subjects and studies. These include the Museum of Science & Industry (MOSI), which has several floors of science-related exhibits plus the only domed IMAX theaterIMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
in Florida and a planetarium
Planetarium
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...
; the Tampa Museum of Art
Tampa Museum of Art
The Tampa Museum of Art is located in Downtown Tampa, Florida. The museum exhibits 20th-century fine art, as well as Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. It opened in 1979 on the banks of Hillsborough River.- Museum History :...
; the USF Contemporary Art Museum; the Tampa Bay History Center
Tampa Bay History Center
Tampa Bay History Center is a history museum with of exhibit space in Tampa, Florida, United States. It has exhibits about the Tampa Bay area's first native inhabitants, Spanish conquistadors, and people who shaped the area's history, including a reproduction of a 1920s cigar store.Opened on...
; the Tampa Firefighters Museum; the Henry B. Plant Museum
Henry B. Plant Museum
The Henry B. Plant Museum is located in the south wing of Plant Hall on the University of Tampa’s campus, at 401 West Kennedy Boulevard. The museum focuses on the turn of the century Victorian lifestyle of the old Tampa Bay Hotel’s guests...
; and Ybor City Museum State Park
Ybor City Museum State Park
Ybor City Museum State Park is a Florida State Park in Tampa, Florida. The museum occupies the former Ferlita Bakery in Ybor City's National Historic District, at 1818 9th Avenue. It recounts the history of the cigar industry and the Latin community and there from the 1880s through the 1930s...
. Permanently docked in downtown's Channel District is the SS American Victory
SS American Victory
SS American Victory is a Second World War Victory ship which has been preserved as a museum ship in Tampa, Florida. The ship is the main feature of the American Victory Ship & Museum, also known as the American Victory Mariners Memorial & Museum Ship.-History:Named after American University in...
, a former World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Victory Ship
Victory ship
The Victory ship was a type of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace shipping losses caused by German submarines...
which is now a used as a museum ship
Museum ship
A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...
.
Tourism and recreation
Hillsborough River State Park
Hillsborough River State Park is located in the northeast corner of Hillsborough County, Florida near Zephyrhills which is itself in Pasco County. It is a popular park due to its proximity to the city of Tampa....
, just northeast of the city. Tampa is also home to a number of attractions and theme parks, including Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, Adventure Island
Adventure Island (water park)
Adventure Island is an American water park located northeast of Tampa, Florida across the street from Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. The park features of water rides, dining, and other attractions...
, Lowry Park Zoo
Lowry Park Zoo
Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo is a nonprofit zoo located in Tampa, Florida. In 2004, Lowry Park Zoo was voted the #1 Family Friendly Zoo in the US by Child Magazine, and is recognized by the State of Florida as the center for Florida wildlife conservation and biodiversity .Tampa's Lowry Park Zoological...
, and Florida Aquarium
Florida Aquarium
The Florida Aquarium is a 501 not-for-profit organization, publicly operated institution located in Tampa, Florida, United States. It is a large scale, aquarium and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The facility is home to more than 20,000 aquatic plants and animals from...
.
Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo
Lowry Park Zoo
Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo is a nonprofit zoo located in Tampa, Florida. In 2004, Lowry Park Zoo was voted the #1 Family Friendly Zoo in the US by Child Magazine, and is recognized by the State of Florida as the center for Florida wildlife conservation and biodiversity .Tampa's Lowry Park Zoological...
features over 2,000 animals, interactive exhibits, rides, educational shows and more. The zoo serves as an economic, cultural, environmental and educational anchor in Tampa.
Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is a 335 acres (1.4 km²) Africa-themed park located near the University of South Florida
University of South Florida
The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...
. It features many thrilling roller coasters, for which it is known, including Sheikra. Visitors can also view and interact with a number of African wildlife.
Adventure Island
Adventure Island (water park)
Adventure Island is an American water park located northeast of Tampa, Florida across the street from Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. The park features of water rides, dining, and other attractions...
is a 30 acres (121,405.8 m²) water park adjacent to Busch Gardens. It features many water rides, dining, and other attractions typical to a water park.
The Florida Aquarium
Florida Aquarium
The Florida Aquarium is a 501 not-for-profit organization, publicly operated institution located in Tampa, Florida, United States. It is a large scale, aquarium and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The facility is home to more than 20,000 aquatic plants and animals from...
is a 250000 sq ft (23,225.8 m²) aquarium located in the Channel District of Tampa. It hosts over 20,000 species of aquatic plants and animals. It is known for its unique glass architecture. Adjacent to the Aquarium is the SS American Victory, a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
Victory ship
Victory ship
The Victory ship was a type of cargo ship produced in large numbers by North American shipyards during World War II to replace shipping losses caused by German submarines...
preserved as a museum ship
Museum ship
A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...
.
The Tampa Bay History Center
Tampa Bay History Center
Tampa Bay History Center is a history museum with of exhibit space in Tampa, Florida, United States. It has exhibits about the Tampa Bay area's first native inhabitants, Spanish conquistadors, and people who shaped the area's history, including a reproduction of a 1920s cigar store.Opened on...
is a museum of Tampa Bay History located in the Channel District, Tampa, Florida of Tampa. It boasts over 60000 sq ft (5,574.2 m²) of exhibits through 12,000 years.
Theaters, map gallery, research center and museum store.
Well-known shopping areas include International Plaza and Bay Street
International Plaza and Bay Street
International Plaza and Bay Street is a large upscale shopping mall located in the Westshore business district of Tampa, Florida. The mall, which opened in 2001, was built to give travelers an option to shop and dine in high-class surroundings, while at the same time be able to stay near Tampa...
, WestShore Plaza
WestShore Plaza
WestShore Plaza is an enclosed shopping mall located in the Westshore business district of Tampa, Florida, developed by Albert L. Manley of Boston, MA. WestShore Plaza was opened in 1967 and was touted as Tampa's first shopping center that was fully air-conditioned...
, SoHo district
Soho, Tampa, Florida
SoHo Tampa, short for "South Howard Avenue," is an entertainment district within the Hyde Park neighborhood of Tampa. Some of the main cross streets are Kennedy Boulevard , Cleveland Street, Platt Street and Swann Avenue. The area has some of the finest examples of architecture in the city...
, and Hyde Park Village
Hyde Park Village
Hyde Park Village is an upscale open-air shopping district located in the neighborhood of Hyde Park in Tampa, Florida, United States. The center is situated in several buildings located between Swann and Rome Avenues, just a few blocks east of the SoHo district...
. Palma Ceia
Palma Ceia, Tampa, Florida
Palma Ceia is a neighborhood located southwest of downtown Tampa, Florida and is bounded by Morrison Ave to the north; Bay to Bay Blvd to the south; Dale Mabry Highway to the west; and the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway to the east. Palma Ceia is home to the appropriately named Palma Ceia Country Club...
is also home to a shopping district, called Palma Ceia Design District. Previously, Tampa had also been home to the Floriland Mall (now an office park), Tampa Bay Center (demolished and replaced with the new Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football franchise based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League – they are the only team in the division not to come from the old NFC West...
training facility, known as "One Buc Place"), and East Lake Square Mall (now an office park).
Events
Perhaps the most well known and anticipated events are those from Tampa's annual celebration of "Gasparilla", particularly the Gasparilla Pirate FestivalGasparilla Pirate Festival
The Gasparilla Pirate Festival is an annual celebration held in the city of Tampa, Florida. Held each year in late January and hosted by Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla and the City of Tampa, it celebrates the apocryphal legend of José Gaspar , supposedly a Spanish pirate captain who operated in...
, a mock pirate invasion held since 1904 in late January or early February. Often referred to as Tampa's "Mardi Gras
Mardi Gras
The terms "Mardi Gras" , "Mardi Gras season", and "Carnival season", in English, refer to events of the Carnival celebrations, beginning on or after Epiphany and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday...
", the invasion flotilla led by the pirate ship, Jose Gasparilla, and subsequent parade draw over 400,000 attendees, contributing tens of millions of dollars to the city's economy. Beyond the initial invasion, numerous Gasparilla festivities take place each year between January and March, including the Gasparilla Children's Parade, the more adult-oriented Sant'Yago Knight Parade
Sant'Yago Knight Parade
The Sant' Yago Knight Parade, is one of a series of events in the Gasparilla Festival held annually in Tampa, Florida. To recognize the community commitment and financial responsibility of the Krewe of the Knights of Sant´Yago in producing the parade, it is to be referred to as the “Sant´Yago...
, the Gasparilla Distance Classic
Gasparilla Distance Classic
The Gasparilla Distance Classic, named in honor of the Tampa BayGasparilla Pirate Festival, takes place every February on Bayshore Boulevard...
, Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, and the Gasparilla International Film Festival
Gasparilla film festival
The Gasparilla International Film Festival is Tampa Bay's largest independent film festival and was established in 2006.GIFF is operated by the Tampa Film Institute, a full-time 501 organization dedicated to advancing film education and supporting filmmakers, as well as community involvement in...
, among other pirate themed events.
Other notable events include the Outback Bowl
Outback Bowl
The Outback Bowl is an annual New Year's Day college football bowl game played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida. The event was originally called the Hall of Fame Bowl from 1986 to 1994 until being renamed in 1995 for its new title sponsor, Outback Steakhouse...
, which is held New Year's Day at Raymond James Stadium
Raymond James Stadium
Raymond James Stadium, also known as the "Ray Jay", is a multi-purpose football stadium located in Tampa, Florida. It is home to the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers as well as the NCAA's South Florida Bulls football team. The stadium seats 65,857 , and it is expandable to 75,000 for special events...
. Each February, The Florida State Fair
Florida State Fair
The Florida State Fair is held annually at the bugger Florida State Fairgrounds near Tampa. The official state fair of Florida, it includes indoor and outdoor exhibits, rides and shows. It is a chance for the state to showcase its agricultural industry. The Fair also offers competitions and food...
brings crowds from across the state, while "Fiesta Day" celebrates Tampa's Cuban, German, Italian, African-Cuban, Jewish and Spanish immigrant heritage. In April the MacDill Air Fest entertains as one of the largest military air shows in the U.S.. Guavaween
Guavaween
Guavaween is an annual Latin-flavored Halloween celebration which takes place on the last Saturday of October in the historic neighborhood of Ybor City on Tampa, Florida. It is named after Tampa's nickname, "The Big Guava"....
, a nighttime street celebration infuses Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
with the Latin flavor of Ybor City. Ybor also hosts "GaYbor Days", an annual street party in the GLBT-friendly GaYbor
GaYbor
GaYBOR District Coalition in Historic Ybor City is an non profit 501 c ,organization located within Ybor City in Tampa, Florida. It is an organization of LGBTA Bars, Nightclubs, Restaurants, Shops, non Profit Organizations & More thru out the West Coast of Central Florida, with its headquarters in...
district. The Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
The Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival is a movie screening event that takes place each October in Tampa, Florida. The primary venue is the Tampa Theatre, but several other cinemas in or near the downtown area and in St. Petersburg simultaneously host the event as well...
, held annually since 1989, is the city's largest film festival event, and one of the largest independent gay film festivals in the country.
Religion
Communities of faith have organized in Tampa from 1846, when a MethodistMethodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...
congregation established the city's first church
Christian Church
The Christian Church is the assembly or association of followers of Jesus Christ. The Greek term ἐκκλησία that in its appearances in the New Testament is usually translated as "church" basically means "assembly"...
, to 1939, when a 21-year old Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
began his career as a spiritual evangelist and preacher on downtown's Franklin Street, and through to today. Among Tampa's noteworthy religious structures are Sacred Heart Catholic Church, a 1905 downtown landmark noted for its soaring, Romanesque revival
Romanesque Revival architecture
Romanesque Revival is a style of building employed beginning in the mid 19th century inspired by the 11th and 12th century Romanesque architecture...
construction in granite and marble with German
Franz Mayer & Co.
Franz Mayer & Co. is a famous German stained glass design and manufacturing company, based in Munich, Germany, that has been active throughout most of the world for over 150 years...
-crafted stained glass
Stained glass
The term stained glass can refer to coloured glass as a material or to works produced from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant buildings...
windows, the distinctive rock and mortar St. James Episcopal House of Prayer
St. James House of Prayer Episcopal Church
St. James House of Prayer Episcopal Church, also known as the Episcopal House of Prayer, is an active Episcopal parish and historic church building in Tampa, Florida, USA. It is located at 2708 Central Avenue in the city's Tampa Heights neighborhood. On February 21, 1991, the building was added to...
, listed with the U.S. historic registry
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
, and the St. Paul A.M.E. church, which has seen the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
speak from its pulpit. The later two have been designated by the city government as Local Landmark Structures.
Tampa's religious community includes a broad representation of Christian denomination
Christian denomination
A Christian denomination is an identifiable religious body under a common name, structure, and doctrine within Christianity. In the Orthodox tradition, Churches are divided often along ethnic and linguistic lines, into separate churches and traditions. Technically, divisions between one group and...
s, including those above, and Presbyterian
Presbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
, Lutheran
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
, Christian Science
Christian Science
Christian Science is a system of thought and practice derived from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and the Bible. It is practiced by members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist as well as some others who are nonmembers. Its central texts are the Bible and the Christian Science textbook,...
, Church of God
Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee)
The Church of God, with headquarters in Cleveland, Tennessee, is a Pentecostal Christian denomination. With over seven million members in over 170 countries, it is one of the largest Pentecostal denominations in the world...
, United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ
The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC...
, Unitarian Universalist, Metropolitan Community Church
Metropolitan Community Church
The Metropolitan Community Church or The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches is an international Protestant Christian denomination...
, Seventh-day Adventist
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
, Eastern Orthodox (Greek
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, headquartered in New York City, is an eparchy of the Church of Constantinople. Its current primate is Archbishop Demetrios of America.-About the Archdiocese:...
, Coptic
Coptic Orthodox Church in the United States
The immigration of the Copts to the United States of America started as early as the late 1940s. After 1952, the rate of Coptic immigration from Egypt to the United States increased. The first Coptic church in the United States is St...
, Syrian
Syriac Orthodox Church
The Syriac Orthodox Church; is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world. The Syriac Orthodox Church claims to derive its origin from one of the first Christian communities, established in Antioch by the Apostle St....
, and OCA
Orthodox Church in America
The Orthodox Church in America is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church in North America. Its primate is Metropolitan Jonah , who was elected on November 12, 2008, and was formally installed on December 28, 2008...
), various Pentecostal
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
movements, Anglicans, the Quakers, Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...
, and the Mormons
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....
. Tampa also has several Jewish
American Jews
American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are American citizens of the Jewish faith or Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and their U.S.-born descendants...
synagogues practicing Orthodox
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
, Conservative
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism is a modern stream of Judaism that arose out of intellectual currents in Germany in the mid-19th century and took institutional form in the United States in the early 1900s.Conservative Judaism has its roots in the school of thought known as Positive-Historical Judaism,...
, and Reform
Reform movement in Judaism
The Reform movement in Judaism, originally named Reformed Society of Israelites, for Promoting true Principles of Judaism, according to its Purity and Spirit, is a historic and on-going religious and social movement that originated simultaneously in the early nineteenth century in the United States...
.
Around the city are located a handful of mosques for followers of Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, as well as a Tibetan-style
Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist religious doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet and certain regions of the Himalayas, including northern Nepal, Bhutan, and India . It is the state religion of Bhutan...
Buddhist
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
temple
Temple
A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...
, a Thai Buddhist
Theravada
Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
Wat
Wat
A wat is a monastery temple in Cambodia, Thailand, or Laos. The word "wat" means "school".- Introduction :...
, and local worship centers for the Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
and Bahá'í faiths. The Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
, based in nearby Clearwater
Clearwater, Florida
Clearwater is a city located in Pinellas County, Florida, US, nearly due west of Tampa and northwest of St. Petersburg. In the west of Clearwater lies the Gulf of Mexico and in the east lies Tampa Bay. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 108,787. It is the county seat of...
, maintains a location for its congregants in Tampa.
Pro sports
Tampa is represented by teams in three major professional sports leagues: the NFL, the NHL, and Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
. The NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football franchise based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League – they are the only team in the division not to come from the old NFC West...
and the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning
Tampa Bay Lightning
The Tampa Bay Lightning are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . They have one Stanley Cup championship in their history, in 2003–04. They are often referred to as the...
call Tampa home, while the Tampa Bay Rays
Tampa Bay Rays
The Tampa Bay Rays are a Major League Baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of MLB's American League. Since their inception in , the club has played at Tropicana Field...
of Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
play across the bay in St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
. As indicated by their names, these teams, plus several other sports teams, represent the entire Tampa Bay metropolitan area
Tampa Bay Area
The Tampa Bay Area is the region of west central Florida adjacent to Tampa Bay. Definitions of the region vary. It is often considered equivalent to the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area defined by the United States Census Bureau. The Census Bureau currently...
. In addition to these teams, the Orlando Magic
Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic is a professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. They play in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association and are currently coached by Stan Van Gundy...
of the NBA play about an hour and a half away from the Tampa area.
Soccer
- The Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer LeagueNorth American Soccer LeagueNorth American Soccer League was a professional soccer league with teams in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984.-History:...
(NASL) was the area's first major sports franchise, beginning play in Tampa Stadium in 1975. The Rowdies were an immediate success, drawing good crowds and winning the inaugural Soccer BowlSoccer BowlThe Soccer Bowl was the championship game of the North American Soccer League from 1975 to 1983. The event was created by NASL Commissioner Phil Woosnam who was trying to build a neutral-site championship event in the mold of the NFL's Super Bowl....
in their first season to bring Tampa its first professional sports championship. Though the NASL ceased operations in 1984, the Rowdies continued to compete in various indoor and outdoor soccer leagues until finally folding in 1993.
- In 2008, the United Soccer LeaguesUnited Soccer LeaguesThe United Soccer Leagues is the organizer of several soccer leagues with teams in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. It includes men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Leagues currently organized are the USL Pro, the USL Premier Development League, the W-League, and...
First DivisionUSL First DivisionThe United Soccer Leagues First Division was a professional men's soccer league in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico....
announced that a new incarnation of the Rowdies would begin play as an expansion franchise in 2010. However, due to questions about the licensing rights to the "Rowdies" name, the team was rechristened FC Tampa Bay before actually taking the pitch. The new team played in George M. Steinbrenner field in Tampa during their first campaign and moved to Al Lang Field in St. Pete in 2011.
Football
- The Tampa Bay BuccaneersTampa Bay BuccaneersThe Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football franchise based in Tampa, Florida, U.S. They are currently members of the Southern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League – they are the only team in the division not to come from the old NFC West...
began in 1976 as an expansion team of the NFL. They struggled mightily at first, losing their first 26 games in a row to set a league record for futility. After a brief taste of success in the late 70s, the Bucs again returned to their losing ways, and at one point lost 10+ games for 12 seasons in a row. The hiring of Tony DungyTony DungyAnthony Kevin "Tony" Dungy [DUN-jee] is a former professional American football player and coach in the National Football League. Dungy was head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1996 to 2001, and head coach of the Indianapolis Colts from 2002 to 2008...
in 19961996 NFL seasonThe 1996 NFL season was the 77th regular season of the National Football League and the season was marked by notable controversies from beginning to end...
started an improving trend that eventually led to the team's first Super BowlSuper Bowl XXXVIISuper Bowl XXXVII was an American football game played on January 26, 2003 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California to decide the National Football League champion following the 2002 regular season...
title in 20022002 NFL seasonThe 2002 NFL season was the 83rd regular season of the National Football League.The league went back to an even number of teams, expanding to 32 teams with the addition of the Houston Texans. The clubs were then realigned into eight divisions, four teams in each...
under coach Jon GrudenJon GrudenJon David Gruden is an American football analyst and former head coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for seven seasons and prior to that the Oakland Raiders for four seasons. In his first year as the head coach of Tampa Bay, the Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII, defeating the Raiders whom he had...
.
- Tampa has hosted four Super BowlSuper BowlThe Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...
s: Super Bowl XVIIISuper Bowl XVIIISuper Bowl XVIII was an American football game played on January 22, 1984, at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida, deciding the National Football League champion following the 1983 regular season. The American Football Conference champion Los Angeles Raiders defeated the National Football Conference...
(1984), Super Bowl XXVSuper Bowl XXVSuper Bowl XXV was an American football game played on January 27, 1991 at Tampa Stadium in Tampa, Florida to decide the National Football League champion following the 1990 regular season. The National Football Conference Champion New York Giants defeated the American Football Conference ...
(1991), Super Bowl XXXVSuper Bowl XXXVSuper Bowl XXXV was played on January 28, 2001 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida to decide the National Football League champion following the 2000 regular season. The American Football Conference champion Baltimore Ravens defeated the National Football Conference champion New York...
(2001), and Super Bowl XLIIISuper Bowl XLIIISuper Bowl XLIII was an American football game pitting the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the National Football Conference champion Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League champion for the 2008 season. The game was played on February 1, 2009,...
(2009). The first two events were held at old Tampa Stadium, and the last two at Raymond James Stadium.
- The Tampa Bay StormTampa Bay StormThe Tampa Bay Storm are an Arena Football League team based in the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. They play their home games in the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa....
moved to the area from PittsburghPittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
in 1991 and promptly won their first Arena Bowl championship. They have won four subsequent championships (1993, 1995, 1996, and 2003), more than any other Arena Football LeagueArena Football LeagueThe Arena Football League is the highest level of professional indoor American football in the United States. It is currently the second longest running professional football league in the United States, after the National Football League. It was founded in 1987 by Jim Foster...
team. The Storm played in Tropicana Field until 1997, when they moved to the St. Pete Times ForumSt. Pete Times ForumThe St. Pete Times Forum is an arena in Tampa, Florida, that has been used for ice hockey, basketball, and arena football games, as well as concerts....
.
Hockey
- The NHL's Tampa Bay LightningTampa Bay LightningThe Tampa Bay Lightning are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . They have one Stanley Cup championship in their history, in 2003–04. They are often referred to as the...
was established in 1992, and currently play their home games in the St. Pete Times ForumSt. Pete Times ForumThe St. Pete Times Forum is an arena in Tampa, Florida, that has been used for ice hockey, basketball, and arena football games, as well as concerts....
, located in the Channelside district of downtown Tampa. In 20042004 Stanley Cup FinalsThe 2004 Stanley Cup Finals was a best-of-seven playoff series that determined the National Hockey League champion for the 2003–04 season. As a culmination of the 2004 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Eastern Conference champion Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Western Conference champion Calgary Flames...
, the team won their first Stanley CupStanley CupThe Stanley Cup is an ice hockey club trophy, awarded annually to the National Hockey League playoffs champion after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals. It has been referred to as The Cup, Lord Stanley's Cup, The Holy Grail, or facetiously as Lord Stanley's Mug...
championship against the Calgary FlamesCalgary FlamesThe Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. They are members of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . The club is the third major-professional ice hockey team to represent the city of Calgary, following the...
.
Baseball
- The Tampa Bay area has long been home to spring trainingSpring trainingIn Major League Baseball, spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season. Spring training allows new players to try out for roster and position spots, and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play...
, minor leagueMinor league baseballMinor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in the Americas that compete at levels below Major League Baseball and provide opportunities for player development. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses...
, and excellent amateur baseball. Accordingly, there was some cross-bay competition for a Major League BaseballMajor League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
franchise throughout the 1980s and 1990s until the Tampa Bay RaysTampa Bay RaysThe Tampa Bay Rays are a Major League Baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays are a member of the Eastern Division of MLB's American League. Since their inception in , the club has played at Tropicana Field...
(originally "Devil Rays") began playing in 1998 at Tropicana FieldTropicana FieldTropicana Field is a domed stadium in St. Petersburg, Florida, which has been the home of Major League Baseball's Tampa Bay Rays since the team's inaugural season in 1998, when they were the Devil Rays. It has also served as the host stadium for the Beef 'O' Brady's Bowl, an NCAA-sanctioned college...
in St. PetersburgSt. Petersburg, FloridaSt. Petersburg is a city in Pinellas County, Florida, United States. It is known as a vacation destination for both American and foreign tourists. As of 2008, the population estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is 245,314, making St...
. After a decade of futility, the Rays made it to the 2008 World Series2008 World SeriesThe 2008 World Series was the 104th World Series between the American and National Leagues for the championship of Major League Baseball. The Philadelphia Phillies as champions of the National League and the Tampa Bay Rays, as American League champions, competed to win four games out of a possible...
and won the American League East in 2008 and 2010.
- In 2007, the team began the process of searching for a stadium site closer to the center of the area's population. Downtown Tampa has been mentioned as a possible location, among other sites.
- Several Major League baseball teams conduct spring training in the area, and most also operate minor league teams in the Class-A Florida State LeagueFlorida State LeagueThe Florida State League is a Class A-Advanced minor league baseball league operating in the state of Florida. They are one of three leagues currently operating in Class A-Advanced, the third highest of six classifications of minor leagues...
. The New York YankeesNew York YankeesThe New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the The Bronx, New York. They compete in Major League Baseball in the American League's East Division...
and the affiliated Tampa YankeesTampa YankeesThe Tampa Yankees are a minor league baseball team based in Tampa, Florida. They are currently members of the Florida State League and are the Class A-Advanced affiliate of the New York Yankees Major League Baseball team. Home games are played at George M. Steinbrenner Field, a miniature replica of...
use George M. Steinbrenner Field across Dale Mabry HighwayDale Mabry HighwayDale Mabry Highway is a north–south road in Tampa, Florida. The majority of its length consists of three lanes each direction plus a central turn-lane and often includes a right-turn lane. It begins at the MacDill Air Force Base entrance in South Tampa and ends by merging with US 41 just...
from Raymond James Stadium.
College sports
- The University of South FloridaUniversity of South FloridaThe University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, one of the state's three flagship universities for public research, and is located in Tampa, Florida, USA...
began playing intercollegiate sports in 1965. The South Florida BullsSouth Florida BullsThe South Florida Bulls are the athletic teams for the University of South Florida. The university competes in NCAA Division I, USF is a member of the Big East Conference, and has been since 2005...
established a basketball team in 1971 and a football teamSouth Florida Bulls footballThe South Florida Bulls are a Division I FBS college football program that plays its home games in Tampa, Florida. The team began playing in 1997, holding its first team meeting under a shade tree as the school had no proper football facilities on campus...
in 1998. The football Bulls joined the Big EastBig East ConferenceThe Big East Conference is a collegiate athletics conference consisting of sixteen universities in the eastern half of the United States. The conference's 17 members participate in 24 NCAA sports...
in 2005, and under former head coach Jim LeavittJim LeavittJim Leavitt is a former American football player and current linebackers coach for the San Francisco 49ers. He served at the head coach at the University of South Florida from the football program's inception in 1997 until 2009, compiling a record of 95–57.-Early years:Leavitt grew up in St...
, rose to as high as #2 in the BCSBowl Championship SeriesThe Bowl Championship Series is a selection system that creates five bowl match-ups involving ten of the top ranked teams in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision , including an opportunity for the top two to compete in the BCS National Championship Game.The BCS relies on a combination of...
rankings in 2007.
- The University of TampaUniversity of TampaThe University of Tampa , is a private, co-educational university in Downtown Tampa, Florida, United States. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. In 2006, the University celebrated its 75th anniversary...
Spartans, located in downtown Tampa, is the oldest active sports organization in the city, having begun play in 1933. "Tampa U" once had a successful Division I football program and was the first regular tenant of Tampa Stadium before giving up the sport in 1974. Today, UT competes at the NCAA Division II level in the Sunshine State ConferenceSunshine State ConferenceThe Sunshine State Conference was originally formed in 1975 as an NCAA Division II men's basketball conference. It has since expanded to sponsor championships in 14 sports, including men's and women's basketball, baseball, men's and women's golf, women's rowing, men's and women's soccer, softball,...
(SSC). UT is among the top schools in the SSC in both championships and student-athletes named to the Commissioner's Honor Roll.
Demographics
| Tampa Demographics | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 Census United States Census, 2010 The Twenty-third United States Census, known as Census 2010 or the 2010 Census, is the current national census of the United States. National Census Day was April 1, 2010 and is the reference date used in enumerating individuals... |
Tampa | Hillsborough County | Florida |
| Total population | 335,709 | 1,229,226 | 18,801,310 |
| Population, percent change, 2000 to 2010 | |||
| Population density | 2,960.2/sq mi | 1,204.9/sq mi | 350.6/sq mi |
| White or Caucasian (including White Hispanic) | 62.9% | 71.3% | 75.0% |
| (Non-Hispanic White or Caucasian Non-Hispanic Whites Non-Hispanic Whites or White, Not Hispanic or Latino are people in the United States, as defined by the Census Bureau, who are of the White race and are not of Hispanic or Latino origin/ethnicity. Hence the designation is exclusive in the sense that it defines who is not included as opposed to who is... ) |
46.3% | 53.7% | 57.9% |
| Black or African-American | 26.2% | 16.7% | 16.0% |
| Hispanic or Latino (of any race) | 23.1% | 24.9% | 22.5% |
| Asian | 3.4% | 3.4% | 2.4% |
| Native American or Native Alaskan | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.4% |
| Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.1% |
| Two or more races (Multiracial) Multiracial American Multiracial Americans, US residents who identify themselves as of "two or more races", were numbered at around 9 million, or 2.9% of the population, in the census of 2010. However there is considerable evidence that the real number is far higher. Prior to the mid-20th century many people hid their... |
3.2% | 3.1% | 2.5% |
| Some Other Race | 3.8% | 5.0% | 3.6% |
As of 2000, the largest ancestries are German (9.2%), Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
(8.4%), English
English people
The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...
(7.7%), Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
(5.6%), and French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
(2.4%).
As of 2010, there were 157,130 households out of which 13.5% were vacant. In 2000, 27.6% households had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.4% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 16.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.9% were non-families. 33.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.36 and the average family size was 3.07.
In 2000, the city's population was spread out with 24.6% under the age of 18, 10.0% from 18 to 24, 32.3% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34.7 years old. For every 100 females there were 95.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.1 males.
In 2006, the median income for a household in the city was $39,602, and the median income for a family was $45,823. Males had a median income of $40,461 versus $29,868 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $26,522. 20.1% of the population and 16.4% of families were below the poverty line. 31% of those under the age of 18 and 13.6% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty level.
As of 2000, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
spoken as a first language
First language
A first language is the language a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity...
accounted for 77.43% of all residents, while 22.56% spoke other languages as their mother tongue. The most significant was Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
speakers who made up 17.76% of the population, while French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
came up as the third most spoken language, which made up 0.63%, and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
was at fourth, with 0.56% of the population.
A 2006 study by UCLA suggests that Tampa has one of the highest GLBT
LGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
populations per capita with 6.1% of citizens polled identifying as gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
, lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
, bisexual or transexual. The Tampa Bay metropolitan area
Tampa Bay Area
The Tampa Bay Area is the region of west central Florida adjacent to Tampa Bay. Definitions of the region vary. It is often considered equivalent to the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater Metropolitan Statistical Area defined by the United States Census Bureau. The Census Bureau currently...
also ranks 5th of all major metropolitan areas with 5.9% being GLBT.
Sister cities
Tampa has formalized sister city agreements with the following cities:| - Barranquilla Barranquilla Barranquilla is an industrial port city and municipality located in northern Colombia, near the Caribbean Sea. The capital of the Atlántico Department, it is the largest industrial city and port in the Colombian Caribbean region with a population of 1,148,506 as of 2005, which makes it Colombia's... , Colombia Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the... - Le Havre Le Havre Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total... , France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... - Ashdod, Israel Israel The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... - Agrigento Agrigento Agrigento , is a city on the southern coast of Sicily, Italy, and capital of the province of Agrigento. It is renowned as the site of the ancient Greek city of Akragas , one of the leading cities of Magna Graecia during the golden... , Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... |
- Veracruz Veracruz, Veracruz Veracruz, officially known as Heroica Veracruz, is a major port city and municipality on the Gulf of Mexico in the Mexican state of Veracruz. The city is located in the central part of the state. It is located along Federal Highway 140 from the state capital Xalapa, and is the state's most... , Mexico Mexico The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of... - Boca del Río Boca del Río, Veracruz Boca del Río is a city and municipality located in the center of the state of Veracruz. The small city of Boca del Río serves as the seat of the municipality. The municipality lies just south of Veracruz Municipality, and contains a part of the city and port of Veracruz, Mexico... , Mexico Mexico The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of... - Oviedo Oviedo Oviedo is the capital city of the Principality of Asturias in northern Spain. It is also the name of the municipality that contains the city.... , Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... - İzmir Izmir Izmir is a large metropolis in the western extremity of Anatolia. The metropolitan area in the entire Izmir Province had a population of 3.35 million as of 2010, making the city third most populous in Turkey... , Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... |
See also
- Mayors of Tampa, Florida
- Seal of TampaSeal of TampaThe seal of Tampa is Tampa government's official seal. The seal was made in Italy in the 1920s by Val Antuono, Sr.-Design:In the center of the seal is a depiction of the steamship Mascotte, which was owned by Henry B. Plant and was named after the operetta La mascotte by Edmond Audran...
- Flag of TampaFlag of TampaThe official flag of Tampa is a flag which symbolizes the eras, growth, and characteristics of Tampa. Designed by F. Grant Whitney, it was adopted on July 1, 1930.-Description:...
- United States cities by population
- Largest metropolitan areas in the Americas
- Baldomero LopezBaldomero LopezBaldomero Lopez was a first lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War. He posthumously received the Medal of Honor for smothering a hand grenade with his own body during the Inchon Landing on September 15, 1950.-Biography:Lopez was born on August 23, 1925, in Tampa,...
- List of public art in Tampa, Florida
External links
- City of Tampa Web site
- Tampa Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau
- Tampa Chamber of Commerce
- Tampa Bay History Center
- Tampa website dedicated to historic Tampa photographs
- Tampa Changing - Historical & Modern photographs of Tampa