Sunshine Skyway Bridge

The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is the world's longest cable-stayed concrete bridge, with a length of 29,040 feet. It's part of Interstate Highway 275 which connects St. Petersburg and Bradenton, Florida. Construction 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, which is 190 feet 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.

The bridge at twilight

The present bridge replaces a steel cantilever bridge of the same name which was completed in 1954. That bridge was damaged on May 9, 1980 when during a storm a freighter called the "Summit Venture" hit a pier and knocked over 1200 feet of the bridge into Tampa Bay. The collision caused several automobiles and a Greyhound bus to plunge 150 feet, killing 35 people in one of the worst bridge disasters in history.