The Sunshine Skyway Bridge, also known as the Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge, connects St. Petersburg and Terra Ceia across Lower Tampa Bay using a pair of long beam bridges and a central cable-stayed bridge.
There have been two bridges with the name Sunshine Skyway at this location, with the current one opening in 1987. The Figg & Muller Engineering Group conceived the structure, and the American Bridge Company brought it to life. This bridge connects two of Florida’s major metropolitan areas and provides access to Tampa Bay.
The four-lane bridge connects Manatee County, Pinellas County, and Hillsborough County, carrying Interstate 275 and U.S. Route 19. Those driving two-axle cars in either direction must pay a toll of $1.50, which can be paid in cash or through the state’s SunPass system, as the route is a toll highway.
Just to the west of the current Sunshine Skyway is the site of the old bridge, a two-lane beam bridge with a central truss bridge. First finished in 1954, it received a second span in 1971.
Over the course of four months, the original Skyway bridge was the scene of two significant maritime disasters, the second of which led to its partial destruction and eventual replacement. The worst peacetime tragedy in US Coast Guard history occurred on the night of January 28, 1980, when the US Coast Guard Cutter Blackthorn collided with the tanker Capricorn just west of the bridge, sinking the cutter with the loss of 23 crew members.
As the cargo MV Summit Venture crashed into a pier near the bridge’s center during a violent squall on May 9, 1980, 35 persons lost their lives when many vehicles dropped into Tampa Bay.
Within a few years, the old Sunshine Skyway was torn down in part, the newer Sunshine Skyway was constructed, and the remaining span was partially torn down and turned into a long fishing pier. Given that it traverses one of the busiest shipping lanes in the United States, the modern bridge is equipped with a plethora of safety systems to prevent collisions between ships and the structure.
There have been at least 316 suicides from the bridge or its predecessors into Tampa Bay. Roughly 47 others are still alive. The deaths of many more people thought to have vanished are presumed to have occurred when they fell from the bridge, but no bodies have been found.
The state of Florida built six crisis hotline phones along the center span in 1999 and initiated 24-hour patrols in response to the high number of suicide attempts from the bridge. According to a 2003 article published in the St. Petersburg Times, the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay’s call center had 18 contacts with would-be jumpers, all of whom were able to avoid harm.
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