The I-275 Bob Graham Sunshine Skyway Bridge is considered the flagship bridge of Florida and serves as the gateway to Tampa Bay. The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is one of the most recognizable cable-stayed bridges in the United States. This iconic bridge was the first cable-stayed bridge in the U.S. to have a single plane of stays and single pylons. It features a 1,200’ long main span, which was the longest precast concrete segmental cable-stayed span in the Western Hemisphere when it opened in 1987. The entire bridge is 4.14 miles long, and over 1 million man-hours of work went into the design and construction of this landmark bridge.

The visually pleasing shapes of the bridge were derived from the engineering requirements. Dual elliptical piers for the main segmental span create bridge art and allow for the flexibility needed for the 4,000’ long continuous unit. The elliptical shapes also reduce the wind drag factor, an important consideration in an area prone to hurricane force winds. The main span precast concrete segments are 95’-3” wide, 14’-8” tall, and weigh up to 220 tons.

Winner of 18 design awards including the 1988 Presidential Award through the National Endowment for the Arts, where the jury commented, “Sunshine Skyway Bridge is a superb technical achievement and a work of art. The concrete bridge was constructed utilizing...precast segmental construction...resulting in a thin silhouette that seems to float in mid-air, an effect made even more dramatic by a 1,200’ central span.”