From a distance it looks like a futuristic schooner, sails aloft, barely skimming the surface of the water as it crosses Tampa Bay. Compared as well to the strings of a harp or an open fan, the triangular plane of stays that support the sleek Sunshine Skyway Bridge are, however described, a triumph of engineering design. Though not a new way of spanning the seas, (cable-stayed bridges, relatively inexpensive and easily mounted on the piers of destroyed bridges, first gained popularity in post-World War II Germany), the Sunshine Skyway Bridge combines state-of-the-art engineering with a striking design that heralds the aesthetic possibilities of the cable-stayed bridge.

From an esthetic standpoint [the Sunshine Skyway Bridge] may well rank as the most impressive piece of large-scale bridge design in this country in half a century.

-Paul Goldberger, October 16, 1988, New York Times

Completed in 1987, the bridge’s 1,200-foot (366 m)-long span is the world’s longest cable-stayed precast concrete span. In its entirety, including the side spans and approaches, the bridge is 21,878 feet (6,668 m) long and crosses 4.1 miles (6.6 km) of Tampa Bay. It carries I-275, part of the Eisenhower Interstate System that celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2006. Twin 40-foot (12 m)-wide roadways run on either side of the brilliant yellow cables and provide unobstructed views of the water. The roadways for the bridge’s upper level are constructed of 330 95-foot (29 m)-wide precast concrete segments that are threaded with high-strength steel cables. This precast superstructure, in addition to being economical, provides continuous structural lines that contribute to the bridge’s graceful appearance. The twenty-one steel cables that support the roadway are splayed out in rows from two slender central pylons which soar 242 feet (74 m) above the deck. The cables are attached to every other deck segment, with each cable supporting two segments on either side of a pylon.

The award-winning Sunshine Skyway Bridge makes clear the feasibility and economy of long-span cable-stayed bridges. In linking the communities of St. Petersburg and Clearwater in the north with Bradenton and Sarasota in the south, the bridge has fused the area surrounding Tampa into a whole, energizing it with new economic growth and civic pride.

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Excerpted from Judith Dupré’s Bridges (Black Dog & Leventhal, 1997).
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FIGG Engineering Group melds leading-edge engineering and construction technologies with sensitivity to local communities, the environment, and aesthetics in bridge designs that are cost-effective, socially and environmentally responsible, as well as works of art. The company has pioneered a bridge-design charette process that allows owners to listen to what the community wants and involve the public in the design of these landmark bridges. FIGG has built bridges in 35 states and abroad, and won 237 design awards, including three of the five Presidential Awards for aesthetic achievement awarded to bridges by the National Endowment for the Arts. For more information on FIGG Engineering Group, visit www.figgbridge.com