By Gabrielle Calise
published September 6, 2019.
updated May 6, 2020
The original Sunshine Skyway bridge opened to the public
66 years ago today, linking the fragmented Tampa Bay region together
and transforming the west coast of Florida.
The $22-million Skyway stretched from St. Petes Maximo
Point at the end of 34th Street S to Terra Ceia Island to U.S.
41 in Manatee County. At the time, it was the longest unbroken
bridge in the U.S. and one of the longest in the world.
A dedication motorcade as it crosses the main span of the Sunshine Skyway bridge after officially
opening the worlds longest prestressed concrete bridge in 1954.
[Associated Press]
The then-St. Petersburg Times celebrated by printing
a thick special section that weighed five pounds and contained
about 330 articles and 460 pictures. The Sept. 6, 1954 front
page story called it the day they pulled the cork on Pinellas
Countys bottleneck of a quarter century.
Front page of the St. Petersburg Times on September 6, 1954. |
[St. Petersburg Times]
The original Sunshine Skyway
Before the Skyway, St. Petersburg was an isolated, sleepy
fishing town. To access it from the south, travelers could take
the Bee Line Ferry, though only one to two thousand cars could
reportedly make it across each day. The only way to drive to
St. Petersburg from the south was to take U.S. 41 north from
Manatee to Hillsborough, then drive across the Gandy bridge.
For three decades, people kicked around the dream of using a
tunnel or bridge to cross the bay. And for three decades, many
said it couldnt be done.
When the original Skyway was built, it had one span and two lanes.
In 1971, traffic prompted construction of a second span carrying
southbound motorists west of the original span.
Aerial view of progress on Sunshine Skyways twin bridge,
looking south.
[St. Petersburg Times Bernie Oram]
The Skyway wasnt just a way to make things easier
for locals. It opened up the Pinellas and Manatee beaches to
travelers, said historian Bill DeYoung, author of 'Skyway:
The True Story of Tampa Bays Signature Bridge and the Man
Who Brought it Down'.
Snapped just before their convertible joined others in the procession
across Sunshine Skyway shortly after opening ceremonies yesterday
were two attractive wives of prominent Floridians. On the left
is Mrs. Courtney Campbell, wife of the U. S. Representative.
With her is Mrs. Spessard Holland, wife of the U.S. Senator.
[St. Petersburg Times Staff]
Naming the Skyway
The St. Pete Junior Chamber of Commerce and what was then-called
the State Road Department held a nationwide naming contest. In
just a month, more than 20,000 entries flooded in from every
state ? and even Canada. A panel of local judges sifted through
each submission.
Entries werent allowed to reference geographic regions
or names of people. Notable rejects included the Magic Carpet,
Loveland Span, Pearly Gates, the Glory Road, Alladins Ramp
and the Garden of Eden.
Eleven of the top 20 finalists included the prefix "sun".
The runner up: Suncoast Skyline.
The winning name came from Indian Rocks Beach resident Virginia
Seymour, the owner of Gulf Ranch Resort. Three days before the
bridge opened, Seymour was given a plaque, an engraved watch
and a painting of the bridge at the Coliseums Sunshine
Skyway Dedication Ball held on Sept. 3, 1954.
J.C. and Virginia Seymour at the Dedication Ball Sept. 3, 1954
at the St. Petersburg Coliseum. | [Tampa Bay
Times]
The day the Skyway opened
The Sunshine Skyway was celebrated the weekend before the grand
opening.
[Times files]
A grand opening ceremony christening the Sunshine Skyway
bridge took place early in St. Petersburg on the morning of Sept.
6, 1954. Ice cream and soda vendors lined the streets and dignitaries
and politicians gathered to speak. Ten "bridge beauties",
representing 10 counties along Floridas west coast, took
a turn adding oversized counties into a massive Florida map.
Acting Governor Charley Johns characterized the new bridge as
a mighty and majestic monument to the cooperative spirit
of man, as he officially opened the Sunshine Skyway bridge
to the public in St. Petersburg ceremonies.
[St. Petersburg Times Unknown]
Then, the motorcade started: At 9:25 a.m., 500 cars lined
up to drive from the Pinellas side of the bridge and paraded
across the Skyway for the first time. A dozen planes and two
helicopters flew over the triumphant inaugural drive.
When the motorcade made it to Bradenton on the other side, they
held the opening ceremony all over again.
Helicopter flies over the main span of the Sunshine Skyway on
opening day. Picture shows how the bridge zooms up from the approach
level to 150.5 feet above water as it crosses the Tampa Bay ship
channel. | [St. Petersburg Times Staff]
It was a wonderful, thrilling experience, wrote
Times reporter Tom Harris. The kind of a thing that
happens only once in a lifetime, and was well worth the effort
of rolling out of bed at 8.a.m.
M.C. Fountain, local printing shop operator, was the only person
of color holding a 1949 Spans celebration button which entitled
him to cross the Sunshine Skyway in the special section reserved
for the holders. | [St. Petersburg Times
Staff]
After the motorcade, the bridge was opened to the public.
Tolls were suspended from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on that first day.
Harold K. Moser, 4942 6th Ave. S., St. Pete, gives $1.75
to Mrs. Rosemary Cason, Sunshine Skyway toll-taker, to be the
first person crossing the big bridge after the 11 oclock free-admission
deadline last night. | [St. Petersburg Times
Staff]
Toll operators counted 15,086 cars on that first day. More
than 50,000 people were estimated to have journeyed across the
bridge that day, whether they rode in buses and trucks or biked
and walked across.
Two lines of cars cross over the Sunshine Skyway in the opening
ceremonies on Labor Day (9/6/54). | [St. Petersburg
Times Staff]
People who never before had been to Palmetto, Bradenton,
Sarasota or St. Petersburg got acquainted with these cities yesterday
for the first time and good neighborliness reigned, wrote
Harris.
Mr. and Mrs. Johnny Leverock came from Erie, Pa.
[St. Petersburg Times Johnny Evans]
Hundreds of boats gathered around the bridge to celebrate
in the blue waters of the bay. The Aquamaniacs Ski Club performed
a water ballet. There was a dance at the Bradenton Municipal
Pier and the Miss Sunshine Skyway pageant was held at Anna Maria
Island.
Even the Bee Line Ferry got a special sendoff as it made its
final run that night.
Rica Diallina, Miss Greece, hands a replica of the Sunshine Skyway
to Acting Gov. Charley Johns at the bridge opening ceremonies
on the St. Pete side. Johns placed the bridge in the center
of the map of Floridas West Coast (in rear) linking the
10 counties together. The counties - Citrus, Hernando, Pasco,
Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and
Collier - were represented by Skyway princesses, each wearing
a bright red bathing suit.
[St. Petersburg Times George Trabant]
It wasnt all fun, though. Tampas David Carpenter
had the unfortunate honor of being the first to get a flat tire
on the Skyway, and Tampa bridge worker Richard F. Spivey was
involved in the first accident. Those misfortunes came after
a long wait to get on the bridge.
North of the Skyway, traffic stopped completely as thousands
sat in their cars on 34th Street and Tangerine and Lakeview Avenues,
waiting for their turn to take the historic drive. Cars backed
up in Manatee County as well.
In the Times, Lowell Brandle wrote in a column that it
was the biggest traffic jam in the history of Pinellas
and Manatee counties.
At a top rate of more than 1,300 cars per hour, traffic crossed
the worlds longest pre stressed concrete bridge, spanning
Tampa bay to link Floridas west coast together. Travel
was free until 11 p.m. | [St. Petersburg Times
Staff]
The Skyway by the numbers
It was July 1954, two months before the original Sunshine Skyway
opened and Rube Allyn could smell a good story. With photographer
Bob Moreland right behind him snapping pictures, they became
the first to cross the 15 mile bridge from end to end.
[St. Petersburg Times Unknown]
4,100,000 cubic yards of sand were dredged to form
the causeways. This would have been enough to cover half of Pass-a-Grille.
12,104,000 pounds of structural steel and 8,536,700 pounds
of reinforcing steel were used to build the Skyway, as well as
115,980 cubic yards of concrete.
$21,250,000 were supplied from a revenue bond issue from
the State Improvement commission.
544 people worked on the bridge.
11 of the Skyways 15 miles were suspended over water.
5 bridges linked together six sections.
2 lanes were on the original single span bridge. There
was no passing.
45 mph was the maximum speed limit. The minimum speed
was 35 mph.
3 counties bridged: The Skyway crossed through Pinellas,
Hillsborough and Manatee counties.
$1.75 was the original toll for a single passenger car
making a one-way trip. Pedestrians and bicyclists paid a 50-cent
toll.
A lone candle adorns the first anniversary cake for the Sunshine
Skyway. Here, Burr Baird, baker at Nagels Bakery, puts
on finishing touches. More than a million people crossed the
Skyway since its opening a year prior.
[St. Petersburg Times Bob Moreland]
A terrifying drive
The Skyway crossing begins and the motorcade pauses half way
up the main span to give dignitaries a chance to look back over
the Sunshine Skyway, open to traffic.
[St. Petersburg Times Staff]
Tom Harris wrote that the ride was thrilling, especially
ascending the rise up to the 150.5-foot high center span.
This is more delightful for Floridians than anyone else
because Florida has few respectable hills in its whole area,
he wrote. To drive a car above sea level was something
natives, unless they live near Brooksville or Tallahassee, said
they had never experienced before.
The 5-degree incline conjured a feeling of going up a roller
coaster, said historian Bill DeYoung.
Youd go up so slow up the side with this feeling
of dread knowing you would go really fast down the other side,
he said. You couldnt see anything it was so
steep.
Drivers would white-knuckle up to the highest point, where the
road turned to metal grating. Then came the low rumble of tires
thumping over the bumps. During the day, passengers could look
down though the grate at churning waves splashing below.
At night came complete darkness. There were no lights on the
original bridge.
That sense of, Im really out here, Im
hurtling though the universe all alone and Im 150 feet
over the water, said DeYoung. Yeah, it was
a little terrifying.
The original Skyways flaws were exposed to a devastating
effect 25 years, eight months and three days later.
The freighter Summit Venture, blinded by a storm, crashed
into the bridges support columns at 7:33 a.m. on May 9,
1980. A 1,200-foot span of the southbound bridge collapsed into
the bay, and 35 people lost their lives.
The 1980 disaster rendered that span unusable. Driving on the
remaining northbound span would become even more nerve-wracking.
You look over and theres the broken bridge right
here, DeYoung said. It was this painful reminder
of what happened, like There but for the grace of God go
I.
A motorcade of excited motorists make the first public crossing
of the new Sunshine Skyway bridge on 9/6/54. The engineering
marvel was the pride of construction superintendent Arthur Goodale.
| [Florida Archives] [Tampa Tribune]
Over 400 members of the "I Love St. Pete&"
Facebook group shared their memories of the bridge. Some of the
submissions:
Kevin Waters: Kevin Waters wrote: I was a child going over that
thing and it was by far the scariest bridge Ive ever been
over. It was called the skyway for a reason and you literally
felt like you were going into the sky.
Debbie Barnard wrote: I remember my dad taking us for a drive
over and back, just for the fun of it! One time, at night, he
turned off the headlights just as we reached the grating! Scared
the crap out of me and my brother!!
Janet Schultz Helmick wrote: Was always scared as a child when
going over the bridge because you could not see the other side.
I was always afraid it would end at the top. The most eerie time,
though, was after the wreck. I was in high school and we were
driving in a school bus to a game in Sarasota. Seeing the other
side of the bridge ... and then NOT ... sent chills down my spine!
Annee Marin wrote: Oh my, so many memories! My grandfather, who
was a Greek immigrant, used to take my little brother and I tomato
picking in Ruskin via the Skyway. Grandpa would always make an
adventure of it and bellow, Is everybody happy? when
his 1962 Studebaker reached the span, to which we would respond
merrily, Yeah! As a native Floridian, that will always
be one of my favorite childhood memories!
Suzanne Marsh wrote: I always loved going over bridges and remember
the sound of the grates when driving over. Also remember driving
over and looking at the lost part of the bridge and the water
below. I was too young to be driving then and had time to really
look. It was terrible sight. Remember where I was when I heard
the news too.
The new Skyway
Construction on the new Sunshine Skyway. | [File
photo Tampa Bay Times]
Construction on a major portion of the Sunshine Skyway bridge
in 1986.
[St. Petersburg Times Eric Mencher]
Construction briefly stopped on the north pier of the Sunshine
Skyway bridge in 1986 while state Officials and the spans
construction contractor decided the next step in correcting a
roadway misalignment. | [St. Petersburg Times
Tony Lopez]
A new bridge opened seven years after the disaster. While
the Skyway we use today is a much different bridge, its name
still conjures memories of the 1980 Skyway disaster.
The new Skyway hulked over the original bridge, peaking at 430
feet tall. About 60,000 vehicles drive over it every day. It
remains one of the most iconic local landmarks in the area.
The newer Sunshine Skyway bridge that is used today, left, stands
next to the old bridge before it was turned into a fishing pier.
| [Morris of Selbypic]
The Tampa Theatre will host the premiere of a new documentary,
'The Skyway Bridge Disaster', on Sept. 15, 2019. Next year will
mark the 40th anniversary of the tragedy.
That bridge is our mountain, said historian Will
Michaels. Its the highest point in the whole area
here in Tampa Bay.
Aerial view of the Sunshine Skyway bridge October 31, 2006.
[St. Petersburg Times Lara Cerri]
Times senior news researcher John Martin contributed to
this report, which uses material compiled from Times archives.
The following info is from en.wikipedia.org:
History Timeline of the Skyway
1950
Construction started on the original bridge (later
converted to northbound only traffic)
1954
Construction completed on the original bridge (later
converted to be the northbound span). It was opened on September
6 (Labor Day) after a grand opening ceremony and then a motorcade
of 500 cars paraded across the Skyway for the first time. A dozen
planes and two helicopters flew over the triumphant inaugural
drive. After the motorcade, the bridge was opened to the public
and tolls were suspended until 11 p.m. Toll operators counted
15,086 cars on that first day (more than 50,000 people).
This bridge replaced the Bee Line Ferry (which was given a special
sendoff as it made its final run that night) from Point Pinellas
to Piney Point. US 19 was extended from
St. Petersburg to its current end north.
1967
Construction started on the southbound span, with
a similar structure to the original bridge, built parallel and
to the west of it.
1971
Construction completed on the southbound span. Although
completed in 69, the opening was delayed until 71
for reinforcing of the south main pier, which had cracked due
to insufficient supporting pile depth. The original span was
converted to carry northbound traffic.
1980
On January 28 the United States Coast Guard Cutter
Blackthorn collided with the tanker Capricorn near
the bridge, resulting in the sinking of the cutter and the loss
of 23 crew members between both water vessels. As the Blackthorn
approached the bridge, it also approached a cruise ship that
was considered to be very brightly lit. In an effort to avoid
the cruiser and protect the passengers onboard, the Blackthorn
moved to the center of the region so that it could pass. Unfortunately,
it was unable to properly identify the Capricorn that
was approaching due to the blinding lights and the fact that
it was still dark outside. As a result, the ships collided. The
ships didnt stop at the bridge, the wreckage continued
nearly one mile out from the bridge.
On May 9 at 7:33 a.m. the southbound span was destroyed when
the freighter MV Summit Venture collided with a pier (support
column) during a sudden squall, sending over 1,200 feet of the
bridge plummeting into Tampa Bay. The collision caused six cars,
a truck, and a Greyhound bus to fall 150 feet into the water,
killing 35 people. One man, Wesley MacIntire, survived when his
Ford Courier pickup truck hit the freighter before falling into
the bay. He sued the company that owned the ship, and settled
in 1984 for $175,000.
The bow of the freighter hit two support piers. The south main
pier withstood the ship strike without significant damage, but
a secondary pier to the south was not designed to withstand such
an impact and failed catastrophically.
After the Summit Venture disaster, the southbound span
was used as a temporary fishing pier and the northbound span
was converted back to carry one lane in either direction until
the current bridge opened.
1982
Construction started on the current Sunshine Skyway
bridge in June. The new bridges main span will be 50% wider
than the old bridge. The piers of the main span and the approaches
for 1/4 mile in either direction will be surrounded by large
concrete barriers, called "dolphins", that can protect
the bridge piers from collisions by ships larger than the Summit
Venture like tankers, container ships, and cruise ships.
1987
Construction completed on the current bridge which
was named the "Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway bridge".
Gov. Grahams idea for the design of the current bridge
won out over the other proposals. The four-lane bridge carries
I 275 and U.S. 19, passing through Pinellas, Hillsborough, and
Manatee Counties. It was opened April 20.
Before the old bridge was demolished and hauled away in barges,
MacIntire (the only survivor who fell in the southbound span
collision) was the last person to drive over it. He was accompanied
by his wife, and when they reached the top of the bridge, they
dropped 35 white carnations into the water. One for each person
who died in the disaster.
1993
Both of the main spans of both the intact northbound
bridge and the damaged southbound bridge were demolished. The
approaches for both old spans were made into the "Skyway
Fishing Pier State Park". These approaches sit 1/2 mile
to the south and west of the current bridge.
1999
In response to the high number of suicide attempts
from the bridge, the state of Florida installed six crisis hotline
phones along the center span and began 24-hour patrols. As of
2003, the call center at the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay received
18 calls from potential jumpers, all of whom survived, according
to a 2003 St. Petersburg Times report.
According to compilations from various media reports as of 2009,
at least 207 people have committed suicide by jumping from the
center span into the waters of Tampa Bay since the opening of
the current bridge in 1987 and an estimated 34 others have tried
but survived. Another 51 people ended their lives from the old
Sunshine Skyway from 1954 to 1987. Several other missing persons
are suspected of having jumped from the bridge but their deaths
could not be confirmed as no bodies were recovered.
2005
An act of the Florida Legislature officially named
the current bridge the "Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway bridge",
after the former Governor of Florida and then U.S. Senator who
presided over its design and most of its construction. According
to sources, he was inspired to suggest the current design by
a visit to France, where he saw a similar cable-stayed bridge,
the Brotonne bridge.
2008
The approaches of the original bridge (span that
was later converted to northbound only traffic) were demolished.
2015
The "Sunshine Skyway Memorial" was unveiled
on May 9 (Saturday), at a public dedication ceremony remembering
the 35th anniversary of the tragic bridge accident that killed
35 people.
2017
In November, work began on installing decorative
lighting to the Skyways columns, main spans, and sloped
spans. The $15.6 million lighting project provides a visual aesthetic
while also enhancing safety and security by providing more light
to the underside of the bridge from dusk to dawn. Over 1,800
LEDs were installed along 1.7 miles of the bridge which cycles
through animated routines. The lighting project was completed
in October 2019 and funded by FDOT through collected toll fees.
2020
In January, FDOT announced they will install the
"Skyway Vertical Net", a vertical barrier in an effort
to deter suicide attempts. Construction for the project is expected
to begin sometime in summer 2020. The vertical barrier will be
placed on the outside walls of the bridge and extend vertically
8 feet from the side barriers. It will span each side of the
bridge for about 1.5 miles. The current toll on two-axle vehicles
is $1.50.
|