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52-715: The Tampa Bay History Center includes three floors of permanent and temporary exhibition space covering 12,000 years of Florida history, with a special focus on Tampa Bay and the Gulf Coast . The center has a museum store, classrooms, the Witt Research Center (a branch of the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library System ), a map gallery, an event hall and the Columbia Cafe (a branch of Ybor City 's Columbia Restaurant ). Hillsborough County

104-521: A Central Ave, Black History walking tour, and the Chinsegut Hill Historic Site field trip. Official website Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida , comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay , Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater inflow into

156-399: A body of water is protected and deep enough to allow anchorage. Many such harbors are rias . Natural harbors have long been of great strategic naval and economic importance, and many great cities of the world are located on them. Having a protected harbor reduces or eliminates the need for breakwaters as it will result in calmer waves inside the harbor. Some examples are: For harbors near

208-514: A leak of 65 million gallons of acidic water from a Cargill phosphate plant on the bay's southern shore severely impacted wetlands in the vicinity of the spill. And in April 2021, a breach of a wastewater reservoir at the long-closed Piney Point phosphate plant sent over 200 millions gallons of nutrient-rich mine tailings streaming into lower Tampa Bay. The resulting growth of red tide algae led to an ecocide and killed over 1000 tons of fish in

260-447: A monthly book group focused on Florida literature. The event is free with registration. Florida Conversations is a free, monthly lecture series highlighting research into Florida history. The Tampa Bay History Center features several activities for youth engagement, including Summer History Adventure Camps. Teen volunteers are enlisted to work as counselors, providing a fun learning environment for kids. Teens are also recruited to serve on

312-643: Is Long Beach Harbor , California , United States, which was an array of salt marshes and tidal flats too shallow for modern merchant ships before it was first dredged in the early 20th century. In contrast, a natural harbor is surrounded on several sides by land. Examples of natural harbors include Sydney Harbour , New South Wales, Australia, Halifax Harbour in Halifax, Nova Scotia , Canada and Trincomalee Harbour in Sri Lanka. Artificial harbors are frequently built for use as ports. The oldest artificial harbor known

364-607: Is a former plantation house and slave manor. The land was originally purchased in the 1840s by Bird Pearson, a lawyer and slave owner, who sold it to the Ederington family. The Ederingtons built the first part of the house. The home was renovated by the Robins, who renamed it Chinsegut Hill in 1904. During the Depression, the owners leased the land and manor home to the US government for $ 1 a year, with

416-704: Is a sheltered body of water where ships , boats , and barges can be moored . The term harbor is often used interchangeably with port , which is a man-made facility built for loading and unloading vessels and dropping off and picking up passengers. Harbors usually include one or more ports. Alexandria Port in Egypt, meanwhile, is an example of a port with two harbors. Harbors may be natural or artificial. An artificial harbor can have deliberately constructed breakwaters , sea walls , or jetties or they can be constructed by dredging , which requires maintenance by further periodic dredging. An example of an artificial harbor

468-411: Is extremely vulnerable to sea level rise caused by climate change. The sea level has risen 8 inches (200 mm) since 1946. Tampa Bay is also one of the areas in the US most at risk when hurricanes arrive because of its location, growing population, and the geography of the bay. The Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Coalition coordinates the region's response to climate change. Communities throughout

520-787: Is silty and sandy, with an average water depth of only about 12 feet (3.7 m). The relatively shallow water and tidal mud flats allow for large sea grass beds, and along with the surrounding mangrove -dominated wetlands, the bay provides habitat for a wide variety of wildlife. More than 200 species of fish are found in the waters of the bay, along with bottlenose dolphins and manatees , plus many types of marine invertebrates including oysters , scallops , clams , shrimp and crab . More than two dozen species of birds, including brown pelicans , several types of heron and egret , Roseate spoonbills , cormorants , and laughing gulls make their year-round home along its shores and small islands, with several other migratory species joining them in

572-561: Is the Ancient Egyptian site at Wadi al-Jarf , on the Red Sea coast, which is at least 4500 years old (ca. 2600–2550 BCE, reign of King Khufu ). The largest artificially created harbor is Jebel Ali in Dubai . Other large and busy artificial harbors include: The Ancient Carthaginians constructed fortified, artificial harbors called cothons . A natural harbor is a landform where a section of

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624-460: The North and South poles , being ice-free is an important advantage, especially when it is year-round. Examples of these are: The world's southernmost harbor, located at Antarctica 's Winter Quarters Bay (77° 50′ South), is sometimes ice-free, depending on the summertime pack ice conditions. Although the world's busiest port is a contested title, in 2017 the world's busiest harbor by cargo tonnage

676-403: The 1950s. However, industrial and agricultural runoff along with runoff from developed areas pose a continuing threat to marine ecosystems in the bay, particularly by clouding the water with sediments and algae blooms, and seagrass coverage declined slightly in the late 2010s. Wastewater pollution from old phosphate plants near the shoreline has been a particular problem. For example, in 2004,

728-593: The Bay, including St. Petersburg and Tampa are adapting infrastructure and buildings to face changes in sea level. Humans have lived in Florida for millennia, at least 14,000 years. Due to worldwide glaciation, sea levels were much lower at the time, and Florida's peninsula extended almost 60 miles west of today's coastline. Paleo-Indian sites have been found near rivers and lakes in northern Florida, leading to speculation that these first Floridians also lived on Tampa Bay when it

780-595: The Corps of Engineers dredged another channel from the mouth of Tampa Bay to the Port of Tampa, instantly making the city an important shipping center. The Corps of Engineers currently maintains more than 80 miles of deep-water channels in Tampa Bay up to a depth of 47 feet. These must be continuously re-dredged and deepened due to the sandy nature of the bay bottom. While dredging has enabled seaborne commerce to become an important part of

832-513: The Floridian leg of the Trail of Tears . For the next 100 years, many new communities were founded around the bay. Fort Brooke begat Tampa on the northeast shore, Fort Harrison (a minor military outpost on Florida's west coast) begat Clearwater , the trading post of "Braden's Town" developed into Bradenton on the south, and St. Petersburg grew quickly after its founding in the late 19th century, on

884-483: The Interbay peninsula and Hillsboro Bay on the east with an overall name of Bay of Spiritu Santo . At other times, the entire bay was identified as The Bay of Tocobaga. The United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1821. The name Spirito Santo seems to have disappeared from maps of the region in favor of "Tampa Bay" (sometimes divided into Tampa and Hillsboro Bays) soon after the US established Fort Brooke at

936-495: The Tampa Bay area's economy, it has also damaged the bay's water quality and ecology. More care has been taken in recent decades to lessen the environmental impact of dredging. Dredged material has also been used to create several spoil islands on the eastern side of Hillsboro Bay. These islands have become important nesting sites for many seabirds, including threatened species such as oystercatchers , and have been designated as "sanctuary islands" that are off-limits to boaters. In

988-456: The Tampa Bay region would be virtually uninhabited for almost 200 years. Tampa Bay was given different names by early mapmakers. Spanish maps dated from 1584 identifies Tampa Bay as Baya de Spirito Santo ("Bay of the Holy Spirit "). A map dated 1695 identifies the area as Bahia Tampa . Later maps dated 1794 and 1800 show the bay divided with three different names, Tampa Bay west of

1040-787: The Teen Council and as Educational Volunteers, where they assist with creating educational programming and events. Teens can gain educational assistance through AP Trivia Nights, which cover a variety of topics relevant to high school Advanced Placement courses. The Tampa Bay History Center offers "History-to-Go" kids on Florida's First People, Florida's Seminoles, and Cigar City. These include primary sources, maps, lesson plans, and supplemental books, and are designed by educators for grades three to five. The Tampa Bay History Center offers several kinds of field trips for students. There are virtual field trips where museum staff talk via live link to students while showing exhibits, guided in-person field trips,

1092-567: The area for over a century. The United States took possession of Florida in 1821 and established Fort Brooke at the mouth of the Hillsborough River in 1824. The communities surrounding Tampa Bay grew tremendously during the 20th century. Today, the area is home to about 4 million residents, making Tampa Bay a heavily used commercial and recreational waterway and subjecting it to increasing amounts of pollutants from industry, agriculture, sewage, and surface runoff . The bay's water quality

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1144-529: The bay and along the nearby gulf coast and may lead to further damage to seagrass beds. The effects of Hurricane Milton in October 2024 caused polluted waste from the fertilizer industry including products from Mosaic , which were retained after the production of phosphate, to enter into Tampa Bay. Both Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene caused disruption in the production of phosphate fertilizers from Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay, like other parts of Florida ,

1196-475: The bay are distributed among over a hundred small tributaries, rather than a single river. The Hillsborough River is the largest such freshwater source, with the Alafia , Manatee , and Little Manatee rivers the next largest sources. Because of these many flows into the bay, its large watershed covers portions of five Florida counties and approximately 2,200 square miles (5,700 km ). The bottom of Tampa Bay

1248-607: The bay is the Hillsborough River , which flows into Hillsborough Bay in downtown Tampa . Many other smaller rivers and streams also flow into Tampa Bay, resulting in a large watershed area . The shores of Tampa Bay were home to the Weeden Island Culture and then the Safety Harbor culture for thousands of years. These cultures relied heavily on Tampa Bay for food, and the waters were rich enough that they were one of

1300-503: The bay was connected to the Gulf of Mexico. This culture, which relied almost exclusively on the bay for food and other resources, was in turn replaced by the similar Safety Harbor culture by approximately 800 AD. The pre-contact Indigenous nation most associated with the Tampa Bay are the historic Tocobaga nation, who are known to be among the ancestors of the contemporary Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes of Florida. The Safety Harbor culture

1352-483: The bay. Not finding gold or silver in the vicinity and unable to convert the native inhabitants to Christianity, the Spanish did not remain in the Tampa Bay area for long. However, diseases they introduced decimated the native population over the ensuing decades, leading to the near-total collapse of every established culture across peninsular Florida. Between this depopulation and the indifference of its colonial owners,

1404-591: The century and severely impacting the marine ecosystem. Many previously common species became scarce, and bay beaches were regularly closed due to unsafe levels of bacteria and pollutants. Beginning in the early 1980s after federal and state legislation to improve water quality, authorities installed improved water treatment plants and tightened regulation of industrial discharge , leading to slow but steady improvement in water quality and general ecological health. By 2010, measures of sea grass coverage, water clarity, and biodiversity had improved to levels last seen in

1456-470: The city of Tampa's downtown wharves on Hillsboro Bay. Most ships would anchor well out from shore and transfer cargo and passengers to and from the city in smaller boats. Henry B. Plant 's railroad line reached the area in 1884 and ran across the Interbay Peninsula to Old Tampa Bay, where he built the town and shipping facility of Port Tampa at its terminus. In 1898, Plant used his connections in

1508-399: The clearing of mangroves for shoreline development were important factors. Most damaging was the discharge of waste water and other pollutants into the bay, which drastically degraded water quality. The bay's health reached a low point in the 1970s. The water was so murky that sunlight could not reach the shallow bottom, reducing sea grass coverage by more than 80% compared to earlier in

1560-408: The early 20th century, traveling overland between the growing communities around Tampa Bay was an arduous process. The trip between Tampa and St. Petersburg was almost 50 miles (80 km) around the north end of Old Tampa Bay and took up to 12 hours by train and over a full day over uncertain roads by car. The trip between St. Petersburg and Bradenton was even longer – over 70 miles (110 km) all

1612-554: The federal government to make Port Tampa a major embarkation point for the U.S. Army during the Spanish–American War , leading to the U.S. Congress appropriating funds for the United States Army Corps of Engineers to begin the first large dredging operation in Tampa Bay. A deep shipping channel was created which linked Port Tampa to the mouth of the bay, enabling Plant to greatly expand his steamship line. In 1917,

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1664-409: The few Native American cultures that did not have to farm. The Tocobaga was likely the dominant chiefdom in the area when Spanish explorers arrived in the early 1500s, but there were likely smaller chiefdoms on the eastern side of the bay which were not well documented. The indigenous population had been decimated by disease and warfare by the late 1600s, and there were no permanent human settlements in

1716-479: The general public with access to thousands more maps. The collection is in the process of being digitized and can be viewed online. This exhibit is a recent addition to the Tampa Bay History Center, running until February 12, 2023. It details the shared history and experiences of Cuban migrants with Florida's history, the effect Cuban culture has had on Floridian culture, and the history of Cuba created by

1768-629: The historical artifacts from the waste and death of oblivion. Who shall do it?" 100 years later: The museum's exhibition galleries explore 500 years of recorded history and 12,000 years of human habitation in the Tampa Bay region in its three floors of exhibitions. The Touchton Map Library, which is the only cartographic center in the Southeast United States, is home to thousands of maps, charts, and other documents. The collection covers more than 500 years of cartography. The library partners with University of South Florida Libraries to provide

1820-478: The lake-to-bay transformation is not completely understood, the leading theory is that rising sea levels following the last ice age coupled with the formation of a massive sink hole near the current mouth of the bay created a connection between the lake and the gulf. Tampa Bay is Florida's largest open-water estuary, extending over 400 square miles (1,000 km ) and forming coastlines of Hillsborough , Manatee and Pinellas counties. The freshwater sources of

1872-462: The misconception that it is the name of a particular municipality when this is not the case. Tampa Bay formed approximately 6,000 years ago as a brackish drowned river valley type estuary with a wide mouth connecting it to the Gulf of Mexico . Prior to that time, it was a large fresh water lake, possibly fed by the Floridan Aquifer through natural springs . Though the exact process of

1924-563: The mouth of the Hillsborough River in 1824. For the next several decades, during the Seminole Wars , the Tampa Bay would be a primary point of confrontation, detention, and forced expulsion of the Seminole & Miccosukee people of Florida. Fort Brooke, Fort Dade, and the American military's miscellaneous Egmont Key facilities were the primary sites associated with the removal of the Seminole in

1976-455: The ongoing health of the estuary. The term "Tampa Bay" is often used as shorthand to refer to all or parts of the Tampa Bay area , which comprises many towns and cities in several counties surrounding the large body of water. Local marketing and branding efforts (including several professional sports teams, tourist boards, and chambers of commerce) commonly use the moniker "Tampa Bay", furthering

2028-498: The past, including a section focusing on using recreations of astrolabes, devices that tracked celestial bodies to help sailors and pirates find their way on the sea. Pirates, conquistadors, and naval history are explored in this exhibit, with interactive presentations like "The Pirate's Fate Theater", immersing guests in a voyage on the sea. The museum partners with Hernando County to curate the artifacts at this site in Brooksville. It

2080-405: The people who lived and worked there amid various stages in the past. The exhibition is presented in both English and Spanish, and covers topics from vacations to the political strife that has shaped Cuba into the place it is today. The Treasure Seekers exhibit spans much of the fourth floor of the museum, and offers patrons the ability to look at and engage with seafaring technology and practice of

2132-510: The refuge on Egmont Key . Most of the islands (including several man-made islands built from dredge spoil ) and sandbars are off-limits to the public, due to their fragile ecology and their use as nesting sites by many species of birds. The Tampa Bay Estuary Program keeps watch over the Bay's health. Tampa Bay was once teeming with fish and wildlife. People of the Safety Harbor culture lived almost entirely from mullet, shellfish, sea turtles, manatees, crabs, and other bounties harvested from

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2184-408: The sea. As late as the early 20th century, visitors still reported huge schools of mullet swimming across the bay in such numbers that they "impeded the passage of boats". The establishment and rapid growth of surrounding communities during the 20th century caused serious damage to the bay's natural environment. Heavy harvesting of fish and other sea life, constant dredging of shipping channels, and

2236-641: The shoreline. Albert Whitted Airport on the St. Petersburg waterfront and Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Island near downtown Tampa were both established in the 1930s. Later, Tampa International Airport and St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport were established on opposite sides of Old Tampa Bay, and MacDill Air Force Base opened on the southern tip of Tampa's Interbay Peninsula. Harbor A harbor ( American English ), or harbour ( Australian English , British English , Canadian English , Irish English , New Zealand English ; see spelling differences ),

2288-408: The stipulation that they could live in the home until their death. The history center's tour focuses on the stories of these families who lived at the site. Tampa Bay History Center offers docent-guided walking tours of Tampa's historic sites and neighborhoods. The tours last 90 minutes and cover about one mile. Two notable tours are Ybor City and Central Avenue East. Tampa Bay History Center hosts

2340-499: The surrounding communities much faster and furthering the economic development of the Tampa Bay area. The difficulty of traveling between Tampa and St. Petersburg in the early 20th century inspired the world's first scheduled air service, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line , which operated during the tourist season of 1914. While the construction of bridges made air travel across Tampa Bay unnecessary, several airports have been built along

2392-608: The way around Tampa Bay, a trip that still took about two hours into the 1950s. In 1924, the Gandy Bridge over Old Tampa Bay reduced the driving distance between Tampa and St. Petersburg to 19 miles (31 km). Ten years later, the Davis Causeway (later renamed the Courtney Campbell Causeway ) was built between Clearwater and Tampa. More bridges criss-crossed Tampa Bay over the ensuing decades, making travel between

2444-543: The western bay shore opposite Tampa. By 2010, the Tampa Bay Area was home to over 4 million residents. As Tampa began to grow in the mid-1800s, roads across central Florida were still just rough trails and rail lines did not yet extend down the Florida peninsula, so the most convenient means of traveling to and from the area was by sea. By the late 19th century, however, the shallow nature of Tampa Bay made it impossible for large modern vessels with deeper drafts to reach

2496-592: The winter. The cooler months are also when warm-water outfalls from power plants bordering the bay draw one out of every six West Indian manatees , an endangered species, to the area. Tampa Bay was designated as an "estuary of national significance" by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1990. Two National Wildlife Refuges are located in Tampa Bay: Pinellas National Wildlife Refuge and

2548-623: Was 14 times its present size when it was established by the Florida Territorial Legislature in 1834. Its boundaries included all or part of 24 present-day counties, stretching from Ocala to Lake Okeechobee and St. Petersburg to Orlando. In the early 1880s, Tampa residents expressed concern that there was no organized effort to preserve and display local artifacts. In the January 19, 1882, issue of The Sunland Tribune , County Judge J. G. Knapp wrote, "... no time should be lost in snatching

2600-413: Was dominant in the area at the time of first contact with Europeans in the mid-1500s. The Tocobaga , who built their principal town near today's Safety Harbor in the northwest corner of Old Tampa Bay, are the most documented group from that era because they had the most interactions with Spanish explorers . However, there were many other coastal villages organized into various small chiefdoms all around

2652-463: Was seriously degraded by the early 1980s, resulting in a sharp decline in sea life and decreased availability for recreational use. Greater care has been taken in recent decades to mitigate the effects of human habitation on Tampa Bay, most notably upgraded sewage treatment facilities and several sea grass restoration projects, resulting in improved water quality over time. However, occasional red tide and other algae blooms have caused concern about

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2704-649: Was still a freshwater lake. Evidence of human habitation from this early period has been found at the Harney Flats site, which is approximately 10 miles east of the current location of Tampa's downtown waterfront. The earliest evidence of human habitation directly on the shores of Tampa Bay comes from the Manasota culture , a variant of the Weeden Island culture , who lived in the area beginning around 5,000–6,000 years ago, after sea levels had risen to near modern levels and

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