Tourist information -
St Petersburg
Saint Petersburg (Florida) is a city in Pinellas County, western Florida. The city is located on Pinellas Peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It is linked by bridges with Tampa and Bradenton, and by causeways with a string of islets in the Gulf of Mexico. Saint Petersburg is on the Intracoastal Waterway, which passes between the west side of the peninsula and the offshore island chain. The city's economy is based on the manufacture of electronic and aerospace equipment, boats, and medical goods, and activities associated with telecommunications, information services, and marine research; the city's economy is bolstered by a strong tourism industry. The area is served by the Tampa International Airport and Saint Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport.
Institutions of higher education include Stetson University College of Law (1900), which has been based in Saint Petersburg since 1954; the University of South Florida, Saint Petersburg Campus (1956); Eckerd College (1958); and a junior college. The city is the home of a museum containing North America's largest collection of works by the surrealist artist Salvador Dalí; the Florida International Museum, which hosts major traveling exhibitions; and the Museum of African American Art. Several major league baseball teams conduct spring training in the city, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are scheduled to begin major league baseball play in 1998 in Saint Petersburg. Among its many recreational facilities are fine beaches and city parks that stretch along most of the city's long waterfront.
The Spanish explorers Pánfilo de Narváez and Hernando de Soto may have landed in the area, in 1528 and 1539 respectively. The community was settled in 1834, plotted in 1884, and grew after the arrival of the railroad in the late 1880s. It incorporated as a city in 1903. The city was named by railroad official Peter Demens for his boyhood home of Saint Petersburg, Russia. The city first gained popularity during the Florida land booms of the early 20th century. During the 1950s the population almost doubled, largely because many retired people moved to the city. |
