Throwback Thursday: A view of the Tampa skyline from 90 years ago

TAMPA — On a September afternoon nearly 90 years ago, Tampa was already a city with a skyline.

Cigar City's downtown was fairly bustling, years before residents and businesses would flee to the suburbs.

You can see people walking, heading west toward the heart of downtown from the view of the Cass Street Bridge.

It was built in 1926 to ease traffic on the Lafayette Street (now Kennedy Boulevard) Bridge.

That same year, the street car system carried about 25 million riders who spent a nickel apiece to get to work and school. It was also the year the Tampa Theatre opened downtown.

There's not much left of the skyline of the 1920s. The Floridan Hotel, which opened in 1927, still stands but is hard to see from the Cass Street Bridge of today. The once-tallest Florida building is now eclipsed by several other city skyscrapers.

By 1930 the city's population hit 101,161, according to census data, double what it was a decade earlier.

By 1946, the street car would run its last route.

And the skyline would continue its transformation.

Contact Sara DiNatale at sdinatale@tampabay.com. Follow @sara_dinatale.