The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is of the more scenic drives in Florida, with motorists able to connect from the St. Petersburg area to cities further down the west coast of the state through a roadway over the Gulf of Mexico.
It’s an engineering marvel that opened in 1987 and cost $244 million to build, but the newly constructed bridge came after a tragedy occurred there that was similar to the one in Baltimore on Tuesday.
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On May 9, 1980, the original bridge was destroyed after a freighter ship called the MV Summit Venture collided with a support column of the bridge during morning rush hour as motorists were traveling through a rain storm.
More than 1,200 feet of the bridge was destroyed. There were 35 killed after six cars, a truck and a Greyhound bus plunged into the water, with the oldest victim being 92 and the youngest victim a baby.
Some cars barely managed to stop their vehicles before reaching the collapsed gap in the bridge. The ship that collided with the bridge was headed to what was then called the Port of Tampa.
Following the tragedy, what remained of the bridge was torn down, except for two ends now used as fishing piers. A replacement was eventually built in a different location, with more bumpers to protect from crashes and with a raised height to better allow ships to pass underneath.
Those who died in the tragedy are honored at a memorial of the 1980 tragedy that is on the Pinellas County side of the bridge.