In 1885, Tampa’s Streetcars became the first in the entire state, and according to Hillsborough County Senior Planner Diego Guerra they crisscrossed the city connecting different neighborhoods to the cigar factories in West Tampa, Ybor City and to the industrialized port. By 1892 lines extended from Ybor to Ballast Point and in the year following, West Tampa was connected to the city by the streetcar which even ran along Bayshore Boulevard.
Tampa was known as the "Harlem of the South" between the 1920s and 1950s for the Black business, food, music, and entertainment on Central Avenue in Tampa, Florida
A century ago, the 1921 hurricane made landfall in Tarpon Springs, packing 120-mile-per-hour winds, a storm surge of 11 feet, and claiming the lives of eight – including children. That was the last time the Tampa Bay area took a direct hit from a major hurricane.
If the Bay Area saw a repeat of the 1921 Category 3 storm that hit Tarpon Springs, it would likely be a multi-billion-dollar disaster to the Tampa Bay region.