Tampa , Florida
City Flag
This is the city flag of Tampa. Red, white, and blue
for the Stars and Stripes, the red and gold of Spain, the British Union
Jack, the red, white and green of Italy and the French tricolor were used
to depict the countries that contributed to the growth of Florida. The
Flag was adopted in the year 1930, June.
Tampa is a magnificent city located in Hillsborough County, on the west coast of Florida. The population was 321,772, according to the U.S. Census Bureau conducted in 2004; thus Tampa is considered to be the third largest city in the state
Tampa is a part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater metropolitan area. The four-county area is composed of approximately 2.6 million inhabitants, making it the second largest Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the state, the third largest in the Southeastern United States, and the twelfth largest in the United States.
History
The Spanish were the first to explore the Tampa bay in 1513. But the Spaniards were focusing too much on the eastern side of Florida. And later in the 1800 the American settlers began arriving at Tampa. There are a lot of assumptions on how Tampa got its name; some say that it refers to the region first visited by the Europeans. And according to the language of Calusa, Tampa means “sticks of fire”. Other historians say that the name refers to "The place to gather sticks". Since Tampa bay is subjected to a lot of lightning strikes, sticks of fire seems to be more suitable.
The first Spanish to visit the Tampa bay is conquistador Pánfilo de Narváez, on April 8, 1528. The single living member of de Narváez's expedition was saved by Hernando De Soto who arrived a year later. Initially a peace treaty was established between the local Indians and a Spanish outpost. Later this was withdrawn when the Spanish discovered the absence of gold in that region, and it became difficult to convert the local Indians to Christianity, as they were skilled warriors.
When England acquired Florida in 1763, the bay was named Hillsborough Bay, after Lord Hillsborough, Secretary of State for the Colonies.
On January 18, 1849 Tampa was officially integrated with 185 residents (excluding military personnel stationed at Fort Brooke). The town's first census came in 1850 when Tampa-Fort Brooke accounted for 974 residents.
Tampa’s commercial success is due to its bay and the Hillsborough River. Phosphate was discovered in the Bone Valley region near Tampa in 1883 .The whole area was rich in phosphates. The discoveries of phosphates lead to the immense growth of shipping and mining industries. Tampa is now one of the world's leading phosphate exporters. Henry B. Plant's railroad was constructed soon, thus the commercial fishing industry came into existence.
Tampa was not only establishing its shipping and mining industry; it also started its own cigar factory. The cigar manufacturing unit came into existence when Vincente M. Ybor moved his cigar manufacturing operations to Tampa from Key West In 1885. He moved his factory due to the persuasion of the Tampa Board of Trade. This resulted in Tampa being a well-established cigar-manufacturing unit. The Ybor City district was built to accommodate the factories and their workers. Tampa soon became a major cigar production center. This lured a lot of workers from different parts of the country to arrive at Tampa and work in the cigar factory. An extravagant hotel was built by Henry B. Plant in the city in 1883; currently the University of Tampa is using it.
Tampa served to be a military training center for the Americans during the local war and many such troops were trained there.
Soon Tampa was becoming a prey to criminal activities, this was because
the Tampa residents began gambling and an illegal lottery system called
bolita came into existence and this lead to development of gambling parlors.
Since the government officials did not take proper action, crime rate
began increasing in Tampa.
Charlie Wall was the first biggest criminal in the underworld of Tampa.
Sicilian Mafioso Santo Trafficante Sr. strived a lot to eliminate all
the criminal activities in 1950. His son Santo Trafficante, Jr. continued
the good work after his father’s death and he established his power
throughout Florida and into Batista-era Cuba.
The University of South Florida was established in 1956, this lead to
a great development in northern Tampa and nearby Temple Terrace.
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.
The population of Tampa is always increasing, the introduction of air conditioners are the main cause for the increase of inhabitants in Tampa. And this rapid growth of population in and around Tampa is initiating a lot of housing developments.
A tragic incident happened On January 5, 2002, when a young 15-year-old amateur pilot crashed his Cessna plane into the 42-story Bank of America Plaza building in downtown Tampa. This young pilot named Charles Bishop died, but there was only limited damage because the plane crash took place on Saturday and only a few people were present in the building. Later the officials found a suicide note supporting osama bin laden. Bishop’s family filed a case against Hoffman-La Roche; the company that makes Acutance. Claiming that bishop had been consuming acutanne to recover from acne, which produced a side effect of depression or severe psychosis. But then after autopsy it became vivid that the traces of drug were not present in his body.
Landmarks
The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, serves to be a great landmark as well as a famous tourist attraction. This is Florida's largest bridge, and the world’s longest cable-stayed bridge. The Hillsborough County line extends throughout the bay and to the Gulf of Mexico, in which is part of the city's water area. The existing cantilever bridge collapsed when a freighter crashed into it in 1980.so now there remains a new bridge in its place.
The construction field in Tampa is well flourishing and there are ideas of building two extravagant landmarks. One is to build a Space Needle building similar to that of Seattle's. The other is to build large fabric gates, which would be placed at the borders leading to downtown Tampa. Not only that, these gates is going to be illuminated so that tourists or residents can easily identify the place. The place is under advanced construction so that it will be ready to host the Superbowl in 2009 with over 43 condo, hotel, and mixed-use developments.
The construction in Tampa is a never-ending task; they have proposed a lot of other buildings and tours. Still a lot of landmarks have been proposed to be built.
Geography
Tampa is surrounded by both the old Tampa bay and Hillsborough bay. Tampa is situated on the West coast of Florida at 27°58'15" North, 82°27'53" West (27.970898, -82.464640) GR1.
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 is water. The total area is 34.31% water.
City Seal
Economy
Because of its frequent growth and development Tampa has a flourishing
tourist industry. It is said that cash is abundant in that region; many
big icons have built their farmhouses there. There is an excellent spot
called as the upscale Tampa Palms and this place proves to be the best
for retired persons. This is also an excellent relaxation spot. Tourists
actually flock to this place because all the other amenities like large
banks and telecommunications companies are present here. Tampa also attracts
a lot of youngsters because of its well-established outsourcing industries
such as call centers.
As a tourist the places to be visited here are the Fortune 500 Company Publix, Busch, three major league sports teams and the famous super market chain.
Weather And Climate
A subtropical to moderate climate prevails in Tampa. Their highest temperature is recorded between 65f and 95f, where as the lowest temperature has not gone below 32f.
But sometimes the cold weather can pose serious problems to the population in Tampa. Because this frosty weather, damages a lot of plants, crops and aquaculture. Even the formation of fog can be a little serious here. The summer carries hot weather and high humidity. The major weather problems in Tampa are due to the thunderstorms and the hurricanes. The city gets affected by the thunderstorms during the summer season. High winds and hail hit the city together with the thunderstorms. The hurricane season occurs from June to November. Lightening attacks are very famous in Tampa; sometimes this city has even experienced deadly and dangerous lightening strikes. And Tampa is considered to be the place frequently affected by lightening than any other region in United States.
Attractions And Points Of Interest
- You can enjoy hot air balloon rides in the Big Red Balloon Sightseeing Adventures.
- If you want to stroll around the city then Hyde Park in South Tampa provides you excellent entertainment. The recreation places include restaurants, attractive shops and movie theatres.
- Once called Malibu Grand Prix, there is a fabulous complex in Tampa. now it is named as Tampa Grand Prix and has two 18-hole miniature golf courses, a game room, and two race tracks.
- Seminole Gaming Palace - Seminole reservation, casino, Hard Rock Cafe.
- Tampa am and Tampa pro are two ceremonies, a lot professional skateboarders come to Tampa during these times. Because Tampa possesses the world famous Skate Park called as The Skate park of Tampa. Tampa am is on January and Tampa pro is on march.
- Tampa has also got a historic train station, the train running between downtown and Ybor City is considered to be legendry.
- Tampa is filled with landmarks one such is the Ybor City, which is considered to be a National Historic Landmark District near downtown. This place has got a lot of nightclubs, bars, restaurants and other entertainment venues in the area.
- Cuban and Spanish businessmen have settled in West Tampa south of Raymond James Stadium. There is a place called as Columbus Drive, which holds another name “Boliche Boulevard” after a famous Cuban dish. La Teresita, La Ideal, Lincoln Restaurant, The Italian American Club, and the Letter Carriers Hall are some of the well-known local gathering places in Tampa.
- Tampa also has the grand prix of St.petersburg.
- There are even more sight-seeing spots in Channelside located next to the Tampa Bay, arcades, shops, restaurants and bars, and an IMAX theatre are present there.
- Horse racing is very popular at Tampa Bay Downs, in Oldsmar. The live horse racing season is from December to May. Even poker games can be played there. These poker games are played in the card room.