Busch Gardens Tampa Bay is a animal theme park located in Tampa, Florida, United States, with the entire park landscaped and designed around themes of Africa and Asia. Owned and operated by SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment, the park opened on June 1, 1959. The park has an annual attendance consistently exceeding 4 million, often ranking second among SeaWorld parks behind SeaWorld Orlando. The park features many roller coasters and thrill rides, including a Dive Coaster called SheiKra, a "family-style" thrill coaster themed around cheetahs called Cheetah Hunt, a launched roller coaster called Tigris, a classic seated steel roller coaster called Kumba, a wood-steel hybrid hypercoaster called Iron Gwazi, Falcon's Fury (the second-tallest free-standing drop tower in North America, and one of few to tilt and face riders towards the ground), and Montu, which was the tallest and fastest inverted roller coaster in the world when it opened. The park also features several rides and attractions aimed for children under the age of nine, as well as two water rides — a river rafting ride and a classic log flume. History 1957–1959: Busch Brewery and Gardens Anheuser-Busch proposed acquiring land in Florida to develop a brewery with Tampa and Jacksonville as potential sites in April 1957. By June, unconfirmed rumors were reported that a $25–30 million brewery would be built in Tampa, Florida, but were initially denied by Anheuser-Busch. Anheuser-Busch made public on July 25, that it had purchased a plot of land in Tampa for $320,000 to construct a $20 million brewery. The construction of the Tampa brewery coincided with the construction of a competing brewery in the Tampa Industrial Park complex by Schlitz. For the planning of the brewery, August Busch Jr. remarked Anheuser-Busch wanted to include gardens to attract the local community and contribute landscaped areas. Busch Jr. held the opinion that functional parks could help widen Anheuser-Busch's interest. In March 1958, August Busch Jr. commemorated the groundbreaking for the Tampa brewery. Construction took place through the rest of 1958 and the early months of 1959. In February 1959, Anheuser-Busch acknowledged the brewery would open in March. A dedication ceremony for the brewery was scheduled in March, though the opening of the Busch Gardens would not take place until June when the brewery's beer would begin to ship. Manufacturing in the Busch brewery began on March 12. The brewery was dedicated on March 31, by August Busch Jr.