Panama City (Florida)

Panama City (Florida), city, seat of Bay County, northwestern Florida, a deepwater port on Saint Andrew Bay (an arm of the Gulf of Mexico); incorporated 1909. It is a manufacturing and tourist center, known for the production of paper, seafood, and chemicals. A community college is here, and Tyndall Air Force Base and a U.S. Navy coastal systems center are nearby. British Tories settled Saint Andrew, now the western residential end of Panama City, before and during the American Revolution, and it became a base for blockade runners and a salt-producing center during the American Civil War. Panama City itself was platted in 1888 and named by its founders in the hope that it would become a major port serving Panama Canal traffic. In 1909 Panama City was merged with Millville and St. Andrew. Population 33,346 (1980); 34,378 (1990); 36,417 (2000); 37,188 (2005 estimate).