Port Tampa, Florida

Port Tampa is a neighborhood in the southwesternmost portion within the city limits of Tampa, Florida, on the western end of the Interbay Peninsula. Within this neighborhood is Picnic Island Park as well as several public schools including Westshore Elementary, Monroe Middle School, and Robinson High School.It is sometimes confused with Port Tampa Bay (formerly the Port of Tampa), Tampa's larger port area near downtown on the northern end of Hillsborough Bay.HistoryThe town of Port Tampa City was established in 1885 at the end of Henry B. Plant's railroad line. The shallow draft of Tampa Bay made Tampa's main port inaccessible for the larger ships of the day, so Plant built a new port several miles away. To help bring visitors and residents to this new development, Plant's built the St. Elmo Inn and Port Tampa Inn at the end of his rail line. The Port Tampa Inn was larger and had the distinction of being constructed directly on the bay on stilts.Port Tampa was the primary port of embarkation for the Spanish–American War in Cuba. In June 1898 Port Tampa and the city of Tampa hosted more than 33,000 visitors including military officers, enlisted men, nurses, civilian clerks, teamsters, packers, stevedores, war correspondents, tourists, and a host of foreign military observers. Wartime notables who passed through Port Tampa included Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders, the Buffalo Soldiers, Clara Barton of the American Red Cross, Richard Harding Davis, Stephen Crane, and Frederic Remington.