Talk:Sunshine Skyway Bridge

Layout layout

How's this for layout? --SPUI 08:46, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

• Yeah, SPUI; that's nice. I just couldn't quite manhandle the various widgets into doing what I wanted. Baylink 22:17, 4 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Suicide Bridge

I know it isn't the thing to be most proud of, but in Pinellas County people say after Golden Gate that the Skyway is the 2nd most jumped off of bridge. Other sources say third... Can someone nail down a real statistic and include that in the article? There are even webpages out there which track jumpers. JoeHenzi 18:42, 17 August 2005 (UTC)

• Per your request, I added a new section with data on Skyway suicides, as well as a photo from the May 1980 accident. -PlainSight 04:21, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

• Not bad, though a bit more conversational than the rest of the page. I suspect the header wasn't going to last too long, though (even though I liked it a lot :-). We need to clear that photo, though...
  --Baylink 04:45, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
  • I don't like the idea of putting too much information in the article about jumpers. The reporting of suicides is a big ethics question for journalists. Unfortuneately, writing about how someone else has committed suicide tends to increase suicides. This is a known fact and taught in journalism schools. I helped build a bridge that had its first jumper reported prominently, only to have someone else jump two weeks later. I think that the article would be more responsible to focus on listing efforts taken to reduce suicides and funny epispodes like the pendulum swing. - SCgatorFan 03:29, 24 May 2007 (UTC)

Info Box

I need help with this InfoBox. Items have been added that are not reflected. Thanks Tampa Gator

Actually that field has not yet been defined at Template:Infobox Bridge. I don't see any reason not to include a field for the toll, so I'll just add that as an optional field. Cacophony 05:48, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

New refs

Just something I found.

• http://www.fhp.state.fl.us/misc/News/Related/FHPnews061505n.htm (reprint)
• http://forums.firehouse.com/showthread.php?t=70046 (reprint)
• http://www.sptimes.com/2005/05/08/Tampabay/Waters_less_troubled.shtml

--Justanother 16:20, 3 August 2007 (UTC)

Inconsistant Stats?

In the article, it says that 35 people were killed in the Summit Venture disaster, but then states that 40 white carnations were thrown over, "one for each person that died". Is there an explanation for this? 2601:D:A980:570:F422:D9C1:3BE5:6B75 (talk) 17:36, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

 Fixed It was vandalism via this edit in May 2011. People tried to clean it up but missed some of the changes. --Marc Kupper|talk 00:40, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Possible new reference

• "Sunshine Skyway Bridge Closes the Gap" (PDF). PCI Journal: 168–174. November–December 1986.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)

Photos included. Photos are assumed to be non-free. davidwr/(talk)/(contribs) 04:00, 31 December 2013 (UTC)

Whistles

It should be noted that contemporary reports state Capricorn was faulted for not sounding a whistle. [1], [2] - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 07:38, 20 April 2014 (UTC)

More Info Box

Frustratingly, it's strangely difficult to find sources to fix some of the current problems in the info box. For instance, the bridge height is listed as 31 feet (Google search tells me it's over 400 feet, but won't give me a cite). The clearance is listed as 93 feet, but various sites say it's about 190 feet. And what is the "Below" number anyway? I might just fix the clearance and remove the obviously-wrong overall height. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Scalveg (talk • contribs) 22:29, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

This had me curious so I did some trig calculations based on a sunrise picture I took. I have the tower height at 411 ft, road height at 186 ft, clearance at 176 ft. Measurement error is probably about 10%. Of course, you can't site me, this is a sanity check only. Mattman944 (talk) 04:48, 25 November 2018 (UTC)

Who came up with the name for The Sunshine Bridge?

According to relatives the rumor was that Frederick R Barkley (1892-1963) won a contest to name the bridge. He was an Editor and Reporter in the Capitol and New York Times Correspondent from 1938-1946. Since he died in Nov 1963 the contest was for the original bridge but I cannot find any info.Sharontastet (talk) 14:43, 29 March 2017 (UTC)2017

Chip Callaway

I'm trying to figure out why "Chip Callaway" redirects here. I can't find any references to this individual anywhere in the article or talk page. Marcberm (talk) 17:43, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

@Marcberm:, I did some Google searching and found this [3]: One of the victims was John “Chip” Callaway Jr., who was 19 years old. He was one of the people on the Greyhound bus that went into the Tampa Bay water during the bridge collapse. The name wouldn't be mentioned explicitly on here and it looks like the redirect was done for this intention. – The Grid (talk) 18:05, 5 December 2019 (UTC)

US 19

Regarding the old bridge, I see
>The old bridge replaced a ferry from Point Pinellas to Piney Point. US 19 was
>extended from St. Petersburg to its current end north.
I am confused by this. I have known of US 19 much further north, in western Pennsylvania. It would have been extended further SOUTH by that bridge.

Should the old bridge and the new bridge have separate articles per WP:SPLIT?

Asking based on discussion and debate on what to do with Francis Scott Key Bridge (Baltimore). Ernest Macomb (talk) 20:46, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

I don't know if there's sufficient material for each bridge to have a separate article. That's kind of why it's grouped together. – The Grid (talk) 20:54, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

Eh, dunno. It was a pretty major event, at least relative to the Goethals Bridge and the Tappan Zee Bridge, which actually do have two articles. Ernest Macomb (talk) 23:27, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

I've long thought that while the info on two bridges are fine together, the 1980 collapse could be separated out into an expanded article. As stated, there's not much more to say about the bridges, but the description of the accident here is quite condensed imo. Zeng8r (talk) 10:53, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

I would agree with a separate article for the 1980 collapse but also I caution just because there's a separate article of one bridge collapse doesn't mean/dictate that other bridge collapses have to follow the same format. For instance, I-35W Mississippi River bridge incorporates the collapse because I imagine WP:EVENT applied. – The Grid (talk) 14:37, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

True, but the bridge itself / themselves would warrant an article even if there had never been a tragedy, though admittedly it would be quite dull. The collapse also meets notability guidelines, as it was a major national news event which has locally been compared in import and shock to the 9/11 attacks. I'm not demanding that it be spun off into a new article, but I'd argue that it could be if someone has time to do it... which I unfortunately do not at the moment. Zeng8r (talk) 21:52, 29 March 2024 (UTC)

I would support a separate article if it was made but I'm just saying this discussion came up due to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. – The Grid (talk) 13:40, 11 April 2024 (UTC)