Bradenton, city, seat of Manatee County, southwestern Florida, on the Manatee River, near its mouth on Tampa Bay; incorporated 1903. It is a popular winter resort and tourism is the primary economic activity. Also important are fruit growing and processing, flower and celery crops, and cattle farming. Nearby is a national memorial marking the presumed site of Hernando de Soto's landing in 1539. The city is named for its first settler, Joseph Braden, a sugar planter who built a castlelike home here in 1854. Population 30,170 (1980); 43,779 (1990); 49,504 (2000).
