ANNA MARIA, Fla. - At the beginning of the 20th century, residents of the booming cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg discovered a delightful getaway destination just across Tampa Bay.

ANNA MARIA, Fla. � At the beginning of the 20th century, residents of the booming cities of Tampa and St. Petersburg discovered a delightful getaway destination just across Tampa Bay.

And the Fig Newton might have played a part.

A century later, the beautiful white-sand beaches of Anna Maria Island still attract thousands of travelers, but now they arrive from all over the country � and world.

City Pier, built in 1911 near the northern tip of the island, still stands, too.

The pier was built by an early developer, Anna Maria Beach Co., that hoped to reap Florida tourist and development dollars but soon went bankrupt. (Some things never change). One of the big investors in the company was relocated Ohioan Charles Roser, who reputedly made most of his fortune by creating the recipe for the Fig Newton.

Today, City Pier is owned by the town of Anna Maria and is a popular spot for fishing and dining. Lucky pier walkers might also spot one of the gentle manatees that frequent the area, swimming in Anna Maria Sound, which separates the island and mainland.

On the pier I also got my closest view ever of a great blue heron, a large and normally skittish wading bird. But the heron I met on the pier was obviously quite used to human companionship and seemed to be angling for a handout from the humans there.

I�ve encountered more aggressive panhandlers, but none as lithe and colorful.

Way back in the day, the pier was also home to two vacation cottages, both of which fell into Tampa Bay in 1926 after their pilings rotted. One, Belle Haven cottage, was fished from the drink and eventually relocated a few blocks inland, to the grounds of the Anna Maria Island Historical Society Museum, where it was restored to its 1920s appearance.

The museum is a great place to learn about those early days, when the first tourist boom was hitting Anna Maria and investors like Roser were building the island infrastructure and luring visitors, residents and businesses to the barrier island.

The museum building itself was constructed in 1920 and has served as an ice house, a service station, a city office, a fire station and a sea turtle hatchery.

Visitors to the museum can pick up a walking-tour guide to Anna Maria. The small town has a surprising number of historic buildings and points of interest.

Several now contain tourist-friendly businesses, such as Sandbar Restaurant, built on the site of one of the first island bathhouses and enjoying an expansive view of the Gulf of Mexico and a vast stretch of the white sandy beach that runs along the entire 7-mile length of the island.

Another beautiful old structure, located between the pier and museum, is Roser Memorial Church, the island�s first house of worship, built in 1913 by, of course, John Roser. (The church has always been nondenominational, just like Fig Newtons.)

I also enjoyed a delicious tuna salad sandwich and a cold, cold $1.25 draft beer at Ginny and Jane E�s Cafe and Coastal Store � a fun and funky combination of restaurant, souvenir shop and general store located in a former supermarket at the center of town.

On the opposite end of the island from Anna Maria town is Bradenton Beach, which is a bit more commercial and congested. But once visitors find a parking spot, they�ll surely enjoy strolling around the Historic Bridge Street district with its plethora of colorful restaurants, shops and inns.

Bridge Street, as the name suggests, once led to a bridge built in 1922 � the first that linked Anna Maria Island to the mainland. The bridge was removed in the 1960s. Today, the remains are the Bradenton Beach Pier, with its own cafe, docks and shops and conveniently located public restrooms.

Visitors to Bradenton Beach also will find popular Coquina Beach, the southernmost stretch of sand on Anna Maria Island, where Tampa Bay to the north gives way to Sarasota Bay to the south. The town also abounds in good seafood restaurants and taverns, many with tremendous views of the Gulf of Mexico to the west or the Intracoastal Waterway to the east.

Today�s Anna Maria adventurers don�t have to wait for a steamship � three convenient bridges link the island to the rest of the world, with easy access to Bradenton and Sarasota. But I predict that after spending a little time here, most visitors won�t give a fig about getting back to the mainland.

sstephens@dispatch.com

@SteveStephens