20 Facts about Tampa, Florida

Located on the west coast of Florida near the Gulf of Mexico, Tampa was a small isolated village, mainly populated by pioneers, until it was opened up by the arrival of the railroad and the cigar industry in the 1880s.

The discovery of phosphate also helped to make Tampa rapidly become a thriving and important city.

I hope that you enjoy my top 20 facts about Tampa and find them interesting.

1. Tampa serves as the county seat for Hillsborough County.

2. The population of the city was calcualted to be 335,709 people in 2010.

3. The climate of the city is temperate, semi-tropical. The average summer temperature is 81.4 degrees Fahrenheit and the average winter temperature is 62.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. The movie, Edward Scissorhands, which was directed by Tim Burton and starred Johnny Depp, was filmed in Land O’Lakes.

5. Before the arrival of Europeans, the Tampa area was inhabited by a variety of Native American tribes, most recently the Tocobaga.

6. Tampa Bay is the largest open-water estuary in Florida, measuring 398 square miles when the tide is high.

7. Clearwater Beach has held the record for the "most days of sunshine" in the Guinness Book of Records.

8. The earliest European contact with the Tampa area was by the Spanish in the 1520s. They searched for gold, which they did not find, and failed to establish any colonies in the Tampa area.

9. The first European settlements didn’t come until 1824, when the US Army established Fort Brooke at the site of the modern day Tampa Convention Center.

10. Local sports teams include the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL), Tampa Bay Lightning (NHL), the University of South Florida Bulls, and the University of Tampa Spartans.

11. The city was ranked as a top city for "twenty-somethings", according to a survey by the Washington Square News in 2004.

12. The city is the 3^rd most populous city in Florida. Miami and Jacksonville hold 1^st and 2^nd place.

13. The historic neighborhood of Ybor City was at one time the cigar capital of the world. Immigrants mainly from Spain, Cuba, and Italy would roll millions of cigars each year.

14. Forbes ranked Tampa as the 5th best outdoor city in 2008.

15. Many teams from the Grapefruit League, such as the New York Yankees, come to the Tampa Bay area for their Spring training.

16. The city has the 7^th largest port in the USA.

17. The city is ranked as a "Gamma" world city by Loughborough University.

18. Tarpon Springs has the biggest proportion of Greek-Americans of any city in the U.S.A.

19. Tampa was an embarkation center for American troops in the Spanish-American War.

20. The city is one of the world’s leading phosphate exporters.