When the pioneer community living near the US Army outpost of Fort Brooke was incorporated in 1849, it was called "Tampa Town" and the name was shortened to simply "Tampa" in 1855.
The earliest instance of

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Indigenous peoples and European exploration
The shores of Tampa Bay have been inhabited for thousands of years. A variant of the Weeden Island culturedeveloped in the area by about 2000 years ago, with archeological evidence

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Topography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 175.3 square miles (453.9 km ), including 113.4 square miles (293.7 km )

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Neighborhoods
The city is divided into many neighborhoods, many of which were towns and unincorporated communities annexed by the growing city. Generally, the city is divided into the following areas: Downtown Tampa,

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As of 2000, the largest European ancestries in the city were German (9.2%), Irish (8.4%), English (7.7%), Italian (5.6%), and French (2.4%).
As of 2010, there were

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Communities of faith have organized in Tampa from 1846, when a Methodist congregation established the city's first church, to 1939, when a 21-year-old Billy Grahambegan

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Finance, retail, healthcare, insurance, shipping by air and sea, national defense, professional sports, tourism, and real estate all play vital roles in the area's economy. Hillsborough County alone has an estimated 740,000 employees, a figure which is projected to

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