As daylight showed the complete devastation left by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, some Floridians recalled when the Skyway Bridge collapsed, killing dozens of people.
Hundreds of thousands of drivers cross the iconic Sunshine Skyway Bridge every day. The bridge connects Pinellas and Manatee Counties and casts an imposing shadow over the entrance to Tampa Bay.
Many drivers who traverse the bridge in 2024 may not recall or may not have even been alive when tragedy struck the previous version of the bridge.
It was May 9, 1980, when tragedy struck. A freight ship crashed into the support columns of the bridge. The crash caused 1,200 feet of the bridge to collapse, killing 35 people on that tragic day.
In the aftermath of the crash, a monument was created in St. Petersburg to honor the victims of the Skyway Bridge Collapse.
Construction on a replacement bridge started in 1983. The project took more than four years to complete, and it became the Skyway Bridge we still use in 2024.
As for the old bridge, you can still see remnants of it on a fishing pier that is off to the side of the Skyway Bridge.
A documentary was made about the bridge disaster in 2019 and can be viewed online.
