Sunshine Skyway Bridge

Onto the causeway leading up to the bridge and looking left (east) and right (west). The original Sunshine Skyway Bridge was a twin steel span looking similar to the Greater New Orleans Bridge.


Like the photo atop this page, another North Skyway Fishing Pier photo with another 2-digit width I-275 shield, something this road has plenty of. The exit from the Skyway takes you to the parking area for the pier. If you're lucky enough to park on the pier, or if you at least walk out on it, you'll see there are twin piers and each one is about 40 feet wide. That just happens to be the width of a two-lane roadway with shoulder. So what I'm getting at is that the fishing piers at either end are the original Sunshine Skyway Bridge. In 1980, a freighter hit a pier on one of the twin spans, collapsing the central portion of the span (the one with all the steel trusswork) and killing people. For seven years after that, the remaining northbound span carried two-way traffic as one of the last bridges on the Interstate highway system with only two lanes. (I-81 in New York still has two.) When the new bridge was built, the old center span was demolished and both sides were truncated to create the long fishing piers you see on this page. (Access to both piers is via the SB lanes because the freeway lies on top of the old NB lanes. You get to cross over once you're out on Tampa Bay.)


The patched-up sign for the south pier comes just as one pulls alongside the north pier. You can see the twin carriageway of the old Interstate, still with FDOT-standard concrete rails on all sides. The piers even have their own logo.


Heading up to the main span and looking right (west) and left (east) once more.


Over the cable-stayed bridge, the South Fishing Pier comes into view. It's much farther away from the highway because the original Sunshine Skyway spans were west of and not quite parallel to the current bridge. They made up for it with a higher-angle curve.


And as you see, the farther I drive, the closer the pier gets.


The view back north up the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. I didn't stick my head out in a 60-mph wind - this is a rear window photo and a mirror photo.


More South Fishing Pier photos, again with the FDOT concrete rail.

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