Sunshine Skyway Bridge

From Freepedia

Sunshine Skyway Bridge
Official name	Sunshine Skyway Bridge
Carries	4 general purpose lanes
Crosses	Tampa Bay
Locale	south of St. Petersburg, Florida
Maintained by	Florida Department of Transportation
ID number	150189
Design	continuous pre-stressed concrete cable-stayed bridge
Longest span	365.8 meters (1200 feet)
Total length	6669.9 meters (4.144 miles)
Width	28.7 meters (94 feet)
Vertical clearance	193 feet
Clearance below	53.3 meters (175 feet)
Opening date	1987
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The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is the world's longest cable-stayed concrete bridge, with a length of 29,040 feet (exactly 5.5 miles or nearly 9 km). It is part of I-275 (SR 93) and US 19 (SR 55), connecting St. Petersburg in Pinellas County, Florida and Palmetto in Manatee County, Florida, passing through Hillsborough County. Construction of the current bridge began in 1982 and was completed in 1987, at a cost of $245 million.

It is constructed of steel and concrete. Its longest span is 1200 feet (366 m), which is 190 feet (58 m) over the water. Twenty-one steel cables clad in nine-inch steel tubes along the center line of the bridge support the structure. It was designed by the Figg & Muller Engineering Group.

While the new Sunshine Skyway contruction was underway, a 1983 investigation by WFLA-TV anchor Bob Hite revealed that their were numerous deficiencies in the concrete that was being poured underwater for the piers that hold up the bridge. This caused numerous concerns about the safety of the bridge and led the Florida Department of Transportation to reevaluate construction techniques and ensure that the bridge would be safe.

Bridge disaster

The present bridge replaces a steel cantilever bridge of the same name. The original two-lane bridge was completed in 1954, with a similar structure built parallel to it in 1971 to make it a four-lane bridge and bring it to Interstate Highway standards. The southbound span was destroyed on May 9, 1980 when during a storm the freighter SS Summit Venture hit a pier and knocked over 1200 feet (366m) of the bridge into Tampa Bay. The collision caused several automobiles and a Greyhound bus to plunge 150 feet, killing 35 people.

The old bridge replaced a ferry from Point Pinellas to Piney Point. US 19 was extended from St. Petersburg to its current end north of Palmetto when the bridge opened.

Bridge suicides/stunts

According to compilations from various media reports, at least 96 people have committed suicide by jumping from the center span into the waters of Tampa Bay since the opening of the new bridge in 1987. Another 51 people ended their lives from the old Sunshine Skyway from 1954-1987. Several other missing persons are suspected of having jumped from the bridge, but their deaths could not be confirmed as no body was recovered.

According to jumperpool.com, the Sunshine Skyway is the "#3 bridge in the country for jumpers." Jumperpool.com is a web site that invites visitors to predict the next Skyway jumper. It self-admittedly uses sarcasm to chronicle their deaths in order to lessen the praise normally given suicide practitioners and to highlight the shame, hurt, and sorrow they leave behind for family and friends.

In response to the bridge's popularity as method of demise for the depressed, the State of Florida installed six crisis hotline phones along the center span in 1999, and began 24-hour patrols. As of 2003, the call center received 18 calls from potential jumpers, all of whom survived, according to a St. Petersburg Times report. However, the total number of jumpers has not significantly declined since the introduction of these safeguards.

In 1999, a group of daredevils did a "pendulum swing" off the bridge, where they were to go back and forth on a rope attached to the cast-off point, eventually ending up directly below where they had started. This had failed when the rope snapped, plunging them 60 meters into the water, leading to broken bones and neck injuries.