I remember it well. I was a young woman living in St Pete and working as a bank examiner. Thankfully, the bank I was assigned to on that day was in Tampa and not Bradenton. It was a stormy and foggy morning. We were driving to work when we heard the news, and we could not believe it. Later that week, I drove out to Ft DeSoto, where I could see from across the bay how much of it was knocked down.
A lot of people were afraid to drive over that bridge. It seemed to go straight up and straight down. I didn’t like it, myself. The rescue workers were really shaken. I remember one talking about recovering the bodies from the Greyhound bus and the horror frozen on their faces. One lucky guy in a pickup truck survived because his truck landed on the barge instead of in the water. A lot of cars went over the edge as visibility was so poor. I remember one man stopped his car just short of the edge and warned others by standing at the edge waving frantically. It was a really sad day.
I was a native of St Pete, but I married and left the area in 1981.
I remember individuals that had previously commuted over the bridge had a drastic change of lifestyle after that.
I grew up in dade city/ pasco co and remember 2 incidents regarding the sunshine skyway being hit by large ship or barge. However, i was a teenager at the time and only remember that is was a tragedy leaving many injury and dead. I’m not sure that greater detail would make it any more real than it already is to me.
Some cards at the St Pete Times wanted to headline, “Ship Hits Span.”
I am not from the area... I watched a Youtube with an emergency call about the collapse after reading this thread - absolutely horrific. At first, when I saw the thread title, I thought of the tragedy the next year in Kansas City ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse ), which I remembered very well from news coverage.
My stepfather was one of the engineers that investigated the why’s of the disaster.
Gruesome work, I was told.
I rode across it on a Trailways bus a week before that happened.
We were in a Lamaze class in Tallahassee, in 1979 with a young couple also expecting their first baby. Both of us had boys in October, and the following year, the young mother was going to take the bus to visit her family and let them meet the newest member. Sadly, she and the baby were on the bus that went off the bridge. The father moved out of the Student Housing apartments, and we never saw him again. It was so very sad.
I also remember that morning well.
I lived in north Tampa and was getting ready to go to my office in downtown Tampa. It was raining cats and dogs. In fact, the storm was so bad that morning that I wasn’t surprised when I heard that something bad had happened. It was a big storm that covered the entire Tampa Bay area.
I had gone over that bridge many times to get to Longboat Key. It was a creepy bridge - very high.
I even sailed under the bridge twice in a Hobie Cat race to and from Longboat Key. We put in on the beach on the north side of the beginning of the bridge.
The thought of unknowingly driving off that bridge into the abyss gives me the willies even today.
I left Tampa in ‘69. I remember riding over it, scary especially on a bike.
I left Tampa in ‘69. I remember riding over it, scary especially on a bike.
I left Tampa in ‘69. I remember riding over it, scary especially on a bike.
I left Tampa in ‘69. I remember riding over it, scary especially on a bike.
Sorry stupid mobile
When we approached the bridge, she dropped to the floor in the back seat with a sweater over her head. She didn't emerge till we were back at ground level again. She had Sunshine Skyway Bridge Phobia.
The peculiar thing was that she flew all over the country in the course of her business, but airplane height didn't appear to bother her.
Leni
amazing account,
http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/bridges/skyway.htm
I had a large Allstate Insurance Agency in Naples for many years and drove over the bridge many times. Our Regional office was in South St Pete and I attended meetings there often. Prior to goimg to Naples I lived in Clearwater and we use to fish off the cat walks along the roadway on the approaches to the actual bridge ( we fished at night). We would walk as far out as we could and fish. they had barriers up so you could not go up on the bridge. There was some wild and different creatures that would swim in the channel under that bridge. It was a wild night because the traffic was right next to you all night long. I remember the accident well and used the bridge after they turned the one way into two way to get traffic flowing. You drove righy by the damage and while the repairs were going on.
I used to drive a big box truck (used Ryder) for my father’s business and crossed those spans at least 6 times per year. After the accident, the remaining span was made into a two lane and as I would drive by the damaged bridge I would take pictures where the road ended. Surreal.
A year and a half ago, I rode a Ninja sport bike from Florida to visit family in Kentucky and my sister works near Lake Barkley. I rode my bike over the bridges to the Land Between the Lakes and on the way back, I had my family video me riding over the bridge. That was the scariest bridge I’ve ever been on. That is the bridge knocked out this year on KY state road 80. The ship that hit it was carrying a rocket to Cape Canaveral.
I came here right after that happened. We see the new (beautiful) bridge from our window.
It was a horrible tragedy.