THIS DAY IN HISTORY:
Freighter Destroys Part of Florida's Sunshine Skyway Bridge (1980)
The original Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay was completed in 1954. A new southbound span was opened in 1971, but only nine years later, it was destroyed when the freighter Summit Venture collided with a support column during a storm, sending more than 1,200 ft (366 m) of the bridge plummeting into the bay. The collision caused several automobiles and a bus to fall 150 ft (46 m), killing 35 people.
