Tampa Bay

Mitten-shaped inlet of the Gulf of Mexico south of Tampa and east of St Petersburg, in west-central Florida. Tampa Bay is 24 km/15 mi wide at its mouth, and extends 37 km/23 mi northeast to the Interbay Peninsula, where it divides into Hillsborough Bay in the east (where the Hillsborough River enters the bay) and Old Tampa Bay in the west. Dredged shipping channels have made it the major port on the west coast of Florida.

The Pinellas Peninsula separates Tampa Bay from the Gulf of Mexico in the west. Numerous islands and the Pinellas and Egmont Key national wildlife refuges lie at its mouth. The Spanish explorer Pánfilo de Narváez landed here in 1528, and De Soto subsequently explored the area in 1539. In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, the bay was a main point of embarkation for troops bound for Cuba.