Sunshine Skyway Bridge
27,625 - 82.65833Koordinaten: 27 ° 37 '30 " N, 82 ° 39 ' 30" W
F1
The Sunshine Skyway Bridge spanning Tampa Bay and connects the city of Saint Petersburg with Terra Ceia. With a length of 8851.392 meters ( exactly 5.5 miles ), it is one of the longest cable-stayed bridges with a central opening. The construction of the current bridge began in 1982 and cost 667 million USD. The completed bridge was dedicated on February 7, 1987 and released on 20 April 1987 to traffic.
In September 1994, the bridge, the official name of Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge was given by the Governor of Florida Bob Graham, who was during design and during much of the construction in office.
Original bridge
The present bridge replaced a constructed by the German - American civil engineer Karl Hanns Bandel steel bridge of the same name. The original two-lane bridge was completed in 1954 and replaced then the ferry from Point Pinellas according to Piney Point. 1969, a similar structure was built parallel to the existing bridge to meet so with four new tracks Interstate request.
Bridge collapse
On 9 May 1980, the cargo ship MV Summit Venture collided during a storm with a bridge abutment, whereupon about 366 meters of the original bridge in the Tampa Bay fell. It crashed six cars and a bus Greyhound Lines 46 meters deep into the water, where 35 people lost their lives.
A single person, Wesley MacIntire, survived the fall, as his SUV first landed on the deck of the cargo ship before it fell into the Bay. He sued the owner of the ship and scored 1984 a settlement of $ 175,000.
The one structure that previously mastered on two tracks traffic to the north, had to deal with one on each track until the new bridge was completed after the accident, the traffic in both directions. Before the old bridge was canceled, Wesley MacIntire allowed to drive as the last person once over the bridge.