Tampa, Florida
City in Florida, United States From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tampa (US: /ˈtæmpə/ TAM-pə) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the county seat of Hillsborough County. With an estimated population of 403,364 in 2023, Tampa is the 49th-most populous city in the country and the third-most populous city in Florida after Jacksonville and Miami.
Tampa | |
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 Interactive map of Tampa | |
  Tampa  Tampa | |
| Coordinates: 27°56′51″N 82°27′31″W | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Florida |
| County |  Hillsborough |
| Settled (Fort Brooke) | 1823 |
| Incorporated (Village of Tampa) | January 18, 1849 |
| Incorporated (Town of Tampa) | September 10, 1853 and August 11, 1873 |
| Incorporated (City of Tampa) | December 15, 1855[lower-alpha 1] and July 15, 1887 |
| Government | |
| • Type | Strong mayor–council |
| • Mayor | Jane Castor (D) |
| • Legislative | Tampa City Council |
| Area | |
| • City | 175.83 sq mi (455.40 km2) |
| • Land | 114.02 sq mi (295.30 km2) |
| • Water | 61.82 sq mi (160.10 km2) 35.3% |
| • Urban | 968.9 sq mi (2,509.5 km2) |
| • Metro | 2,554 sq mi (6,610 km2) |
| Elevation | 48 ft (14.6 m) |
| Population (2020)[5] | |
| • City | 384,959 |
| • Estimate (2023)[5] | 403,364 |
| • Rank | 49th in the US |
| • Density | 3,376.4/sq mi (1,303.6/km2) |
| • Urban | 2,783,045 (US: 17th) |
| • Urban density | 2,872.3/sq mi (1,109.0/km2) |
| • Metro | 3,175,275 (US: 18th) |
| Demonym(s) | Tampan, Tampanian, Tampeño[7] |
| GDP | |
| • Tampa (MSA) | $219.4 billion (2022) |
| Time zone | UTC−5 (EST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC−4 (EDT) |
| ZIP codes | 33601–33626, 33629–33631, 33633–33635, 33637, 33646, 33647, 33650, 33655, 33660–33664, 33672–33675, 33677, 33679–33682, 33684–33689, 33694[9] |
| Area code(s) | 813, 656 |
| FIPS code | 12-71000[10] |
| GNIS feature ID | 0292005[11] |
| Website | tampa |
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Tampa was founded as a military center in the 19th century, with the establishment of Fort Brooke. The cigar industry was brought to Tampa by Vincente Martinez Ybor, after whom Ybor City is named. Tampa was reincorporated as a city in 1887 following the Civil War. Tampa's economy is driven by tourism, health care, finance, insurance, technology, construction, and the maritime industry.[12] The bay's port is the largest in the state, responsible for over $15 billion in economic impact.[13]
Tampa is part of the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is a four-county area composed of roughly 3.1 million residents,[14] making it the second-largest metropolitan statistical area (MSA) in the state and the sixth largest in the Southeastern United States, behind Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, and Miami.[15] The Greater Tampa Bay area has over 4 million residents, and generally includes the Tampa and Sarasota metro areas.
The earliest instance of the name "Tampa", in the form "Tanpa", appears in the memoirs of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, who spent 17 years as a captive of the Calusa and traveled through much of peninsular Florida. He described Tanpa as an important Calusa town to the north of the Calusa domain, possibly under another chief. Archaeologist Jerald Milanich places the town of Tanpa at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor. The entrances to Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor are obscured by barrier islands, and their locations, and the names applied to them, were a source of confusion to explorers, surveyors and map-makers from the 16th century to the 18th century. Bahía Tampa and Bahía de Espíritu Santo were each used, at one time or another, for the modern Tampa Bay and Charlotte Harbor.[16][17]
Tampa Bay was labeled Bahía de Espíritu Santo (Bay of the Holy Spirit) in the earliest Spanish maps of Florida. It became known as B. Tampa (Bahía Tampa or Tampa Bay) as early as 1576.[18][19] In 1601, "B. Tampa", corresponding to Tampa Bay, appeared for the first time on a printed map in Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas's Description del Destricto del Audiencia de la Espanola, from his book Descripcion de las Indias Ocidentales, printed in Madrid.[20]
A 1705 British map also shows B. Tampa, with "Carlos Bay" for Charlotte Harbor to the south. A 1748 British map had "B. del Spirito Santo" for Tampa Bay and "Carlos Bay" to the south. A Spanish map of 1757 renamed Tampa Bay as "San Fernando". As late as 1774, Bernard Romans called Tampa Bay "Bay of Espiritu Santo", with "Tampa Bay" restricted to the Northwest arm, what is now Old Tampa Bay, and the northeast arm named "Hillsborough Bay". The name may have come from the Calusa language or possibly, the Timucua language. Some scholars have compared "Tampa" to "itimpi", which means "close to" or "nearby" in the Creek language, but its meaning is not known.[17]
In 1849, when the pioneer community living near the U.S. Army outpost of Fort Brooke was incorporated, it was called "Tampa Town". In 1855, the name was shortened to simply "Tampa".[21][17]
People from Tampa are generally known as "Tampans", "Tampanians", or "Tampeños".[22] In 2014, local authorities consulted by Michael Kruse of the Tampa Bay Times suggest that "Tampan" was historically more common, while "Tampanian" became popular when the former term came to be seen as a potential insult.[23] A mix of Cuban, Italian, and Spanish immigrants began arriving in the late 1800s to found and work in the new communities of Ybor City and West Tampa. By about 1900, these newcomers came to be known as "Tampeños", or "Tampeñas" for females, a term that is still sometimes used to refer to their descendants living in the area, and potentially, to all residents of Tampa regardless of their ethnic background.[23][24][25][7]
Indigenous peoples and European exploration
The shores of Tampa Bay have been inhabited for thousands of years. A variant of the Weeden Island culture developed in the area by about 2,000 years ago. Archeological evidence suggests that these residents relied on the sea for most of their resources, as a vast majority of inhabited sites have been found on or near the shoreline, with little evidence of farming. At the time of European contact in the early 16th century, several chiefdoms of the Safety Harbor culture dominated the area.[26]
Early Spanish explorers interacted most extensively with the Tocobaga, whose principal town was at the northern end of Old Tampa Bay near today's Safety Harbor in Pinellas County. While there is a substantial historical record of the Tocobaga, and the Calusa, who lived to the south, there is less surviving documentation describing the Pohoy, who lived near the mouth of the Hillsborough River near today's downtown Tampa. Evidence suggests that the language and culture of the Pohoy and other lesser-known groups around the bay were very similar to that of the Tocobaga.[27][28]
Expeditions led by Pánfilo de Narváez and Hernando de Soto landed near Tampa, but neither conquistador stayed long. There is no natural gold or silver in Florida, and the native inhabitants repulsed Spanish attempts to establish a permanent settlement or convert them to Catholicism. The fighting resulted in a few deaths, but the many more deaths were caused by infectious diseases brought from Europe, which devastated the population of Native Americans across Florida and the entire Western Hemisphere. The indigenous cultures of the Tampa Bay area collapsed by around 1600, leaving the west coast of Spanish Florida largely depopulated and ignored for more than 200 years.[29]
In the mid-18th century, events in the American colonies and the early United States drove the Seminole people into northern Florida. They did not move into central Florida until after the United States gained control of Florida in 1821.[30][31]
Before the American period, the Tampa Bay area had a handful of residents: Cuban and Native American fishermen who established small seasonal camps called "ranchos" on the shores of Tampa Bay. The largest was at the mouth of Spanishtown Creek in today's Hyde Park neighborhood along Bayshore Boulevard.[32]
U.S. control
After purchasing Florida from Spain in 1821, the United States built forts and trading posts in the new territory.[33] Fort Brooke was established in January 1824 at the mouth of the Hillsborough River on Tampa Bay, in Downtown Tampa.[34]
Tampa was initially an isolated frontier outpost. The sparse civilian population practically abandoned the area during the Second Seminole War from 1835 to 1842, after which the Seminoles were forced out and many settlers returned.[35]
Florida became the 27th state on March 3, 1845. On January 18, 1849, Tampa was officially incorporated as the "Village of Tampa." It was home to 185 civilians, or 974 total residents including military personnel, in 1850.[36][37] Tampa was reincorporated as a town on December 15, 1855.[38]
Civil War and Reconstruction
During the Civil War, Florida seceded along with most of the southern states to form the Confederate States of America, and Fort Brooke was defended by Confederate troops. Martial law was declared in Tampa in January 1862, and Tampa's city government ceased to operate for the duration of the war.[39]
In 1861, the Union Navy set up a blockade around many southern ports to cut off the Confederacy. Several US Navy ships were stationed near the mouth of Tampa Bay, but small blockade running ships were often able to slip by the blockade to deliver cattle to Spanish Cuba, earning gold for the Confederate cause.[40][41][42] On June 30, 1862, the gunboat USS Sagamore sailed into Tampa Bay and opened fire on Fort Brooke, which returned fire. The Sagamore withdrew after a few hours, and the Battle of Tampa caused little damage. During the Battle of Fort Brooke on October 16 and the Battle of Ballast Point on October 18, 1863, Union forces inflicted serious damage to Tampa's economy when, under the cover of another bombardment of the fort, troops landed and destroyed two blockade running ships that had been hidden upstream along the Hillsborough River.[43]
In May 1864, Union troops landed again and took Fort Brooke largely unopposed. They destroyed much of the fort's facilities and confiscated the remaining military supplies other than the canons, which they tossed into the Hillsborough River, then left the "desolate" town after two days.[44]
The Civil 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.[citation needed]
During the immediate post-war period, Tampa was a poor, isolated fishing vil