Whenever someone tells or asks you about a place, the landmark is the first thing that comes to your mind in that case. We are here are to talk about one such landmark which is called The Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Today, technologywolf will try to tell you everything in brief that you want to know about this bridge.
The bridge that we are talking about here is one of the most spectacular. The desire to see this bridge is often contrary to the regular people’s mindsets who visit Florida for natural beauty. But apart from the stunning beach and nice weather, this bridge adds even more to the beauty of this place.
The Sunshine Skyway bridge is situated in Florida that starts from St. Petersburg and ends at Bradenton. The total length of this bridge is about 29,040 ft. Most of the bridge is over Tampa Bay. When you are on it, you will get a chance to gaze at the amazing view of the seascape of Florida.
A little bit of the history of this bridge
In earlier times, there was a steel cantilever bridge whose name was also Sunshine Skyway. That bridge helped the people in easy transit over Tampa Bay for about 30 years. On May 9, 1980, a massive thunderstorm made a freighter named Summit Venture collide with the bride. The collision was so intense that the whole of the bridge collapsed in the river killing 35 people.
After that incident, the demolition crews destroyed the remaining portion of the bridge and then the construction of the new bridge began. The major designers of the new bridge include Figg and Muller Engineers. Though there are a lot of firms involved in the designing process of the lower sections of the bridge.
Finally, the construction of the new bridge began in 1982. And then it was completed in April 1987 and opened for public use in the same month. The total cost of the new bridge is around $244 million. For such an enormous structure, this is quite a dramatic construction speed. In 2005, this new bridge was named as Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge as per the order of the Governor.
Talking of the structure of the new bridge, it doesn’t look like the old one. The older bridge was a cantilever bridge while the one available today is a cable-stayed bridge.
There are two towers right through the center of the bridge. Cables emerging from those towers help the visitors to have a clear view of the seascapes. All the cable cases have been painted Yellow, thus making the bridge a bit similar to Sunshine.
Final words
We hope this article of technology wolf was helpful in giving you proper information about the skyway bridge. You can follow us for more articles like this.
