My third entry in my "Seven Wonders" series is the The Sunshine Skyway Bridge is a bridge spanning Tampa Bay, Florida a structure that, to my mind, is a fine example of function and beauty combined in one structure.

With a cable-stayed main span, the bridge is 5.5 miles long and connects St. Petersburg in Pinellas County and Terra Ceia in Manatee County, Florida. Construction of the current bridge began in 1982, and the completed bridge was dedicated on February 7, 1987. The new bridge cost $244 million to build, and was opened to traffic on April 20, 1987.

It is constructed of steel and concrete. 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, and built by the American Bridge Company.

The bridge  was designed to withstand hurricane wind forces and has a main span of 1200 ft  with a clearance of 175 ft   above the Tampa Bay ship channel.  These features give the new bridge a longer main span and higher clearance over the water than the original twin truss bridge which lies adjacent to the new structure.

Substructure
The substructure consists of piles and 606 match cast box pier segments rising from 28 to 135 ft above sea level where the structure transitions to single piers.

Trestle approaches 
Low level north and south twin trestles of 4281 and 8736 ft spans, respectively, consist mostly of 100 ft  spans of Type IV AASHTO precast pre- stressed I girders with 8 in.  thick cast-in-place reinforced concrete decks. There are 256 such spans with five girders per span for each roadway.

High level north and south approaches 
These 2430 ft spans lie on each side of the main span. They were erected using the  span by span method of construction. The sections change from I girders to twin trapezoidal box girder segments. There are 584 such precast segments making up 18 spans of 135 ft.