"tampa florida" a Tampa Travel Page by doug48

the city of tampa is located at the intersection of I-4 and I-75 in southwest florida. tampa is the county seat of hillsborough county florida. the tampa bay area was originally inhabited by the calusa native american tribe. the first european to visit tampa was hernando de sota in 1520. with the arrival of europeans the native calusa's disapeared due to disease and tampa was uninhibited until the mid 1700's. during the second seminole war fort brooke was constructed on tampa bay. in 1849 the village of tampa was incorporated. florida was part of the confederacy during the civil war and two civil war battles were fought in tampa in 1862 and 1863. the tampa bay area economy suffered during the period of radical reconstruction following the end of the civil and did not rebound until the 1880's. phosphate was discovered in the tampa bay area in 1883 which was a huge boost to the local economy. also in the 1880's the arrival of henry plant's railroad brought new settlers to the area. in 1885 vincente martinez ybor moved his cigar factory from key west to tampa. by 1929 tampa's cigar industry was producing over 500 million cigars a year. in the 20th century the tampa bay area grew into a major port and industrial city. today the metropolitan tampa bay area has a population of over 3 million.

there are a number of attractions for the tourist in the tampa bay area. tampa has several good museums and the world class florida aquarium. in january of each year tampa hosts the gasparilla pirate festival. for the sports fan tampa is home to the NFL tampa bay buccaneers professional football team and the NHL tampa bay lighting professional hockey team. tampa is also home to the new york yankees spring training and the outback college football bowl game. tampa is home to the busch gardens theme park and the seminole gambling casino. for those interested in history and architecture the ybor city and hyde park neighborhoods are worth visiting.