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.
Isn’t a part of it still there,next to the new one?
My mother had to drive over it a year or so ago and pulled over to the side because she started to panic. I’ve never been across it but I saw it from a distance in the video I watched.
I would be afraid to go across it,too. It’s so high up.
I think the man who just stopped short went to get his golf clubs out of the trunk!
I was living and working on Anna Maria key back then
Quaint
skyway jacks
Cortez....overrun with square groupers...lol
Yep....,that was a wild time
Took my family down last summer to relive it and st pete beach from passa grille to Clearwater was over developed ...even The Don was different
All so tacky and crowded with midwesterners
We spent one night at the Don annex...a joke...and cancelled
Went to Sanibel and rented a little 50s style pastel cottage and had a great time
My wife took a xanax bar to get over the bridge
Of course i had to make it worse slowing down and clowning
Saw a good friend that trip too in NoFla....
Man....how crowded 75 is nowadays
When i was a boy you took US hwys 19 27 41 or 31 into Coppertone nation 98 90