Mystery Location No. 266: August 15, 2021

I think that this is the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, 7508-7534 Sunshine Skyway Ln S, St. Petersburg, Florida which partially collapsed into Tampa Bay on May 9, 1980 after a freighter ran into a bridge support. A total of 36 people in vehicles (including a Greyhound bus) fell 150 feet into the bay. One man survived the collapse and fall - the other 35 died.

This was not the only tragedy in this location. The January before the bridge collapse, a Coast Guard cutter collided with a tanker and 23 crew members died. The Sunshine Skyway has also been a popular location for suicides over the years.

After the collapse, the bridge was demolished and rebuilt, but that hasn’t stopped ghosts from visiting the site. Some drivers on the bridge report seeing a ghostly Greyhound bus with dripping wet passengers. Others talk about the phantoms of suicides along the edges of the bridge. Wesley MacIntire, the sole survivor of the collapse, said that he consistently dreams of finding a drowning girl in the waters of the bay.

In 2000, a Navy P-2V Neptune was towed out of Tampa Bay and under the Sunshine Skyway on its way to building an artificial reef. The wings were removed so the plane could fit through the opening under the bridge.

The original Sunshine Skyway Bridge replaced the Bee Line Ferry which ran from from St. Petersburg to Piney Point. Aunt Bee was the name of Andy Taylor’s aunt and gossipy Mayberry resident on The Andy Griffith Show.

Well done, Jason - I wasn’t even on the right (left) coast!