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38 years later: Looking back on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge tragedy

A freighter ship hit the bridge during a heavy rainstorm on May 9, 1980.
Credit: Keystone, Getty Images
A car precariously balanced on Friday, May 9, 1980, just 14 inches short of plummeting 140 feet into Tampa Bay, Florida, after the freighter "Summit Venture" rammed into the Sunshine Skyway Bridge during a thunderstorm, killing 34 people.

Wednesday marks 38 years since the deadly Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse.

A freighter ship hit the bridge during a heavy rainstorm on May 9, 1980, sending several cars and a Greyhound bus into the water below.

A memorial on the Pinellas County side of the bridge remembers the 35 victims killed in the collapse.

Photos: The Sunshine Skyway Bridge through the years

In 1993, crews demolished the old bridge, which was deemed unfixable. Construction on the new Sunshine Skyway Bridge began in 1982.

Related: Mother recalls losing her son in the Sunshine Skyway Bridge collapse

Since then, thousands of runners ran in March's inaugural Skyway 10K. It marked the first race on the bridge since it opened in 1987. U.S. Air Force veteran Ro Soucy ran in both races.

“I just remember one story of this one guy going to work going southbound and half of his car was hanging over the edge. He just got out and was running back and it dawned on him that he forgot his golf clubs and we went back over to the trunk, which I can’t believe,” Soucy recalled. “In fact, I looked it up and it shows the photo of his car hanging over the bridge.”

The new bridge is sturdier, in a better location for ships and surrounded by giant bumpers called “dolphins.”

Skyway 10K organizers say they are working on a second event next year, aiming for early March, but an official date has not yet been set.

Previous: More than 30 years alter, Gulfport man will run Skyway again

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