I've driven past, but never stopped at the
John F. Germany Public Library in downtown Tampa before, so yesterday, we headed over there on a whim. I only used my cell phone because it's downtown and I didn't want to be flashing a $1,000 in DSLR equipment around in a parking garage. Not that it's unsafe in downtown Tampa, but you know...you need to be aware of the kind of situations you put yourself in.
I found
this link which tells a bit about the man for whom the library is named. (Because though I've lived in this area for 25+ years, I really didn't know who he was! LOL)
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Found this shot on the web. Since I drove I couldn't stop to get a shot of the front of the building. LOL Also, the water features have been turned off lately because of drought issues.
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You have to park in one of the paid parking garages since it's downtown but they have a covered skywalk to get from the garage to the library itself.
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Picture found on Google to help show the walk from external view.
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This is the same skywalk but from INSIDE as the picture above. |
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From the skywalk, looking back at the parking garage and some of the skyline. |
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The skywalk crossed over a street and you can see some of downtown Tampa's skyline. |
After you reach the end of the skywalk, you get to the first building which houses the kids section and the genealogy on another floor. (I wanted to get a photo of a cute near-life sized toy train they had in this area, but some kids ran over to climb on it just as I went to take the shot so I couldn't.)
There's a second sky bridge to connect from the 1st building over to the second.
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A shot of the Straz Center (formerly the Performing Arts Center) where they have all kinds of Broadway shows and such. |
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It's two floors with a "floating" staircase in the middle. |
I didn't really get any images inside because there were a lot of people there and I couldn't get a lot of shots without getting them in the frame. Also, sadly, as it's a downtown library, there were a lot of homeless people hanging out there since it has a/c and it felt wrong to take silly pics with a pineapple with them in the background. I didn't want to insult anyone or put them in an undignified photo without permission, you know?
Still, it's a very large building and Anana and I had fun exploring both levels!