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Tampa is a United States city in Hillsborough County, on the west coast of Florida. It serves as the county seat of Hillsborough County.GR6. The population within the city limits in 2005, according to the Census was 333,040;[1] it is the third-largest city in Florida, behind Jacksonville and Miami. Tampa is a part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area, most commonly referred to as the "Tampa Bay area". The four-county area is composed of roughly 2.7 million residents, making it the second largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the state behind South Florida, the third largest in the Southeastern United States, and the twelfth largest DMA Market in the United States.
HistoryImage:Tampaskylineinday.jpg Downtown Tampa.
The name first appears in the "Memoir" of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda (1575), the author of which had spent 17 years as a Calusa captive. He calls it "Tanpa" and describes it as an important Calusa town. While "Tanpa" is the apparent 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". Later Spanish explorers, having failed to locate Charlotte Harbor, assumed that the large bay they did find was the Bay of Tanpa, and the name stuck with the current Tampa Bay.[2] In April of 1528, the ill-fated Narváez Expedition landed near Tampa with the intention of starting a colony. After being told by the natives of better riches to the north, they abandoned their camp after only a week. A dozen years later, a surviving member of the expedition named Juan Ortiz was rescued by Hernando de Soto's expedition.[3] A peace treaty was conducted with the local Indians and a short-lived Spanish outpost was established, but this was abandoned when it became clear that there was no gold in the area, and that the local Indians were not interested in converting to Catholicism and were too skilled as warriors to easily conquer. When Great Britain acquired Florida in 1763, the bay was named Hillsborough Bay, after Lord Hillsborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies.
Tampa was incorporated on January 18, 1849 with 185 inhabitants (excluding military personnel stationed at Fort Brooke). The city's first census came in 1850 when Tampa-Fort Brooke accounted for 974 residents.[4] Tampa was reincorporated as a town on December 15, 1855, and Judge Joseph B. Lancaster became the first Mayor in 1856.[5][6] During the Civil War, Fort Brooke was occupied by Confederate troops, and martial law was declared in Tampa. In 1862, a Union gunboat shelled the city during the Battle of Tampa.[7][8] Union forces took Fort Brooke in May of 1864, and occupied the town for the next year. Phosphate was discovered in the Bone Valley region near Tampa in 1883. Tampa is now one of the world's leading phosphate exporters. Henry B. Plant's railroad reached the town shortly thereafter, enabling the commercial fishing industry to thrive.[9] In 1885, the Tampa Board of Trade persuaded Vincente M. Ybor to move his cigar manufacturing operations to Tampa from Key West. The Ybor City district was built to accommodate the factories and their workers. Tampa soon became a major cigar production center. Thousands of Italian (the majority coming from Alessandria Della Rocca and Santo Stefano Quisquina, two small Sicilian towns which Tampa maintains strong ties with) and Cuban immigrants came to Tampa to work at the factories. Image:TampaFranklinStreetNorth.jpg Franklin Street, looking North, Tampa c. 1910s-1920s Image:Old Tampa Bay Hotel.jpg Tampa Bay Hotel Henry B. Plant built a lavish luxury hotel called the Tampa Bay Hotel in the city in 1891, which became the foundation of the University of Tampa when it was established in 1933 becoming Tampa's first institute of higher learning.[10] Tampa was an embarkation center for American troops during the Spanish-American War. Lieutenant Colonel Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders were part of the 30,000 troops stationed in Tampa for training. In 1904, local civic association Ye Mystic Krewe "invaded" the city for the first time, establishing the yearly Gasparilla Pirate Festival. Before it was incorporated two category 4 hurricanes hit Fort Brooke nearly destroying the whole Fort and town. In 1921 a category 4 hit Tampa. Illegal bolita lotteries became very popular among the Tampa working classes, especially in Ybor City, where many gambling parlors sprang up. Profits from the bolita lotteries and Prohibition-era bootlegging led to the development of several organized crime factions in the city. The first boss of Tampa's organized crime world was Charlie Wall, 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.[11][12] The University of South Florida was established in 1956, sparking development in northern Tampa and nearby Temple Terrace. There were four attempts to consolidate Tampa with Hillsborough County (1967, 1970, 1971, and 1972). All of which failed at the ballot box with the biggest margin was 33,160 for and 73,568 against the proposed charter in 1972.[13] The city of Tampa grew rapidly, growing by another 150,289 residents from 1950-1960, but only grew by 2,600 (population:277,714) people from 1960-1970. It lost about 9,000 residents from 1970-1980,(population:271,523) but has grown past the 1970 point and is now 303,447 and is estimated at 333,040 and is expected to rise even further to 352,285 by 2010, which would be a 80,000 increase from the figure in 1970. The biggest development of the city was the development of New Tampa that started in 1988 when the city annexed a 24-square mile (mostly rural) area between I-275 and I-75. Today, the district boasts over 22,000 inhabitants. With the advent of air conditioning, thousands of new residents have arrived in Tampa from the northern United States. The population continues to grow rapidly, and construction is proceeding rapidly on new housing developments around Tampa. On January 5, 2002, just four months after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, 15-year-old amateur pilot Charles Bishop flew a Cessna plane into the 42-story Bank of America Plaza building in Downtown Tampa. Bishop died, but there were no other injuries (because the crash occurred on a Saturday, when few people were in the building). A suicide note found in the wreckage expressed support for Osama bin Laden. Bishop had been taking a prescription medicine for acne called Accutane that may have had the side effect of depression or severe psychosis. His family later sued Hoffman-La Roche, the company that makes Accutane, for $70 million; however, an autopsy found no traces of the drug in the teenager's system.
GeographyTampa is located on the West coast of Florida at (27.970898, -82.464640).GR1 It is bordered by two bodies of water: Old Tampa Bay and Tampa Bay, which both flow to form Tampa Bay, which flows into the Gulf of Mexico. The Hillsborough River (Florida) flows out into Tampa bay, passing directly in front of Downtown Tampa and supplying Tampa with its main source of water. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 441.9 km² (170.6 mi²). 290.3 km² (112.1 mi²) of it is land and 151.6 km² (58.5 mi²) of it (34.31%) is water. The highest point in the city is only in the forties. Weather and climate
Tampa's climate is subtropical, with a threat of frost about once every 2-3 years. Highs usually stay between 65 and 95 °F (18 and 35 °C) year round, and lows rarely go below 32 °F (0 °C). These occasional freezes are an enormous threat to area agriculture and aquaculture. Likewise, summer temperatures are predictable, and have never risen above 100 °F (38 °C). The all-time record high temperature in downtown was 99 °F (37 °C), recorded on June 5, 1985.[14] The lowest temperature ever recorded in Tampa was 18 °F (-7.8 °C) in 1962.[15] Image:Tampa Snow.jpg The 1977 snowfall In the Great Blizzard of 1899, Tampa suffered its one and only blizzard, with bay effect snow coming off of Tampa Bay.[16] The last major snow Tampa received was on January 19, 1977, the city received .2 inches of snow. Fog can also be an occasional problem in the winter and spring. Temperatures are hot from May through October, which coincides with the rainy season. These summer days have highs around 90 °F (32 °C) and high humidity. The summer nighttime temperature drops to only around 75 °F (23 °C).[17] Other times of the year, the temperatures are moderate and sunshine is abundant. Thunderstorms are a major concern on summer afternoons. High winds, small hail, and torrential rain often accompany these common afternoon thunderstorms which can be severe. Tornadoes are not unheard of. These storms often move out over the Gulf of Mexico at night, where they are easily seen from land as spectacular light shows. Tampa has a pronounced wet season, averaging 20.6 inches (524 mm) between July and September, but only 6.2 inches (157 mm) between November and January. The wettest month is August, which averages 7.6 inches (193 mm); November is the driest month, averaging only 1.6 inches (41 mm). Yearly precipitation averages 44.8 inches (1137 mm).[18] Another major concern for Tampa is the Atlantic hurricane season which runs from June 1 to November 30 and peaks in September. Tampa feels the effects of tropical systems, on average, every two to three years, but the city has not had a direct hit by a hurricane since the 1930s. If a category four or five hit the area, Tampa would see a storm surge of 25-30 ft. This surge, coupled with the fact that most of the downtown area is within five feet of sea level, means that Tampa would see greater destruction than Hurricane Katrina, the worst disaster in American history.[19] Tampa also is popularly known as the "Lightning Capital of the United States" (Rwanda maintains the World title), due in part to the frequent, dangerous and (on rare occasions) deadly lightning strikes. CultureTourismGalleries and museums
Attractions and points of interestImage:UnionStationTampa01.jpg Tampa Union Station Image:YborCityTampaFL01.jpg Centro Ybor complex with a TECO Line car passing in front Image:YborCityTampaFL02.jpg Street festival in Ybor Historic District
Zoological parks and aquariums
Landmarks
The city of Tampa is proposing building a more recognizable landmark in the downtown area - and one idea that has been proposed is a Space Needle building similar to that of Seattle's. Another plan calls for four large fabric "gates" to be placed at four areas leading into the downtown area that would be illuminated at night and would be recognizable to outside visitors, welcoming them into the downtown area. EventsImage:Downtown Tampa During Gasparilla Pirate Fest 2002.jpg Downtown Tampa during Gasparilla
Performing artsImage:TampaTheatre01.jpg Tampa Theatre Cinema
Theatre
MusicTampa has its own style of Hip hop based music called Jook Music. Jook music is a style of music and dance that is associated through out the Tampa Bay Area. The genre of music was created in the early 2000s in East Tampa (a predominantly African American community, but the area is commonly referred to as West Tampa). Jook music is an up-beat hip-hop tempo. Jook in general is a dance, but there are a variety of dances typically performed to "jook music". They are The k-wag, City boy, Jackson Heights(which was named after the neighborhood in East Tampa), and The Sanchez. Female rapper Khia (known as one of the pioneers for starting the genre of music) took the Tampa style genre of music to a national audience in 2002 with her controversial debut single "My neck, My back (Lick it)". Despite the fact that well over half the song had to be edited for the radio use, the song was a huge success, reaching number 42 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. Tampa in TV/film/novels/pop culture
ReligionTampa's first church was the First Methodist Church, founded in a cabin by circuit rider J.C. Lay in 1846. The most famous church, however, is the Sacred Heart Church which was officially opened in 1905. The city also contains St. Paul's A.M.E. Church which was founded by Reverend Thomas W. Long in 1870 and is Tampa's oldest African-American congregation, and First Presbyterian Church which is housed in a Spanish mission style building from 1930.[24] Shopping
SportsImage:Raymondjamesstadium.jpg Main entrance to Raymond James Stadium Image:Stpetetimesforum.JPG St. Pete Times Forum Image:TropGround.jpg Tropicana Field Image:Sundomecloseup.JPG The USF Sun Dome Tampa is represented by teams in three major professional sports leagues; the NFL, the NHL, and Major League Baseball. Two of the teams play in Tampa proper, while the Tampa Bay Devil Rays of Major League Baseball play across the bay in St. Petersburg. All of the teams are considered to represent the entire Tampa Bay metropolitan area. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers became the area's first major franchise in 1976, and brought the area its first major sports championship at the end of the 2002 season, winning Super Bowl XXXVII. The NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning was established in 1992, and currently play their games in the St. Pete Times Forum. The team won their first Stanley Cup championship at the end of the 2003-2004 NHL season. The Devil Rays began play in 1998, but have yet to be a major contender - finishing last in the American League's East Division in eight of the nine seasons they have played. The Tampa Bay Storm play in the lesser-known Arena Football League. Originally playing in Pittsburgh, the team moved to Tampa in 1991. The Storm won their first Arena Bowl championship in 1991, and have won four subsequent championships in 1993, 1995, 1996, and 2003. Since 1997, the team has played its home games in the St. Pete Times Forum, which is located in Tampa. Other sports teams include:
Tampa has hosted several franchises of other professional leagues over the years. The first of these was the Tampa Bay Rowdies, started in 1975 as an expansion franchise of the defunct North American Soccer League (NASL). They played their games at Tampa Stadium. The Rowdies won the inaugural Soccer Bowl in 1975, bringing Tampa Bay its first professional sports championship. The NASL folded in 1984, while the Rowdies continued play in other indoor soccer leagues before folding in 1993. The Tampa Bay Bandits of the defunct United States Football League (USFL) began play in 1985, and played three seasons in Tampa Stadium before the league and the team folded. Coached by Steve Spurrier, their crowd-pleasing style of play was known as "banditball". The Tampa Bay Mutiny of Major League Soccer began play at Tampa Stadium in 1996, and continued through 2001 before folding. The Tampa Bay Area also hosts a number of Major League Baseball teams for spring training, as well as several minor league baseball teams. Playing in the spring training Florida Grapefruit League are:
And playing in the Minor League Baseball Florida State League (Single-A baseball) are:
Sporting Events:
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