History of St. Petersburg, Florida
St. Petersburg (often shortened to St. Pete) is a city in Pinellas County, Florida. The city is known as a vacation destination for North American and European vacationers, as well as a politically important swing state in U.S. Presidential politics and home of the highly-regarded St. Petersburg Times. As of the United States Census 2000 the city population was 248,232. As of 2004, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau is 249,090 making it the fourth largest city in the state of Florida. St. Petersburg is the second largest city in the Tampa Bay Area which is composed of roughly 2.7 million residents in the core, making it the second largest Metropolitan Statistical Area in the state behind South Florida and the third largest in the Southeastern United States. The continuous Tampa Bay urban area reached a rare milestone earlier than expected in April of 2007 by passing the 4 million population mark. The area also gains an unexpected 97,000 people a year since the turn of the century pushing the current population to numbers that were not expected for another decade. The city is commonly referred to by locals as "St Pete"; neighboring St. Pete Beach Florida formally shortened its name in 1994 after a vote by its residents.
The city is located on a peninsula between Tampa Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. It is connected to the mainland to the north, connected with the city of Tampa, Florida to the east by causeways and bridges across Tampa Bay, and to Bradenton, Florida in the south by the Sunshine Skyway Bridge (Interstate 275), which traverses the mouth of the bay. It is also served by Interstates Interstate 175 and Interstate 375 which branch off of 275 into the southern and northern areas of downtown respectively.
With a purported average of some 360 days of sunshine each year, it is nicknamed "The Sunshine City." For that reason, the city is a popular tourist, and retirement destination, especially for those in the United States from colder Northern climates particularly New York, Detroit, and Chicago.
source Wikipedia