Haunted World

Down in sunny central Florida along the Gulf Coast lies the Sunshine Skyway Bridge.  Don’t let this bright and cheerful name fool you though, as this bridge actually has had a very dark past ever since its original creation in 1954.  The notable tragedies really began to occur in 1980.  One night two ships collided close to the bridge causing one of the ships to sink, killing 23 crew members trapped below the ships decks as it sunk.  This became known as the Blackthorn tragedy, for the name of the victim ship and crew.  Later that year, another even more tragic incident occurred as the ship “Summit Venture” ran into one of the bridges main supports causing a large portion of the bridge to collapse killing 35 more people.  In addition, an estimated 51 people committed suicide by jumping off the old bridge before its demise.  

After the bridges collapse in 1980, a new bridge was built next to the old one, which is the Sunshine Skyway bridge you see today.  Since the new bridge has been opened, roughly an additional 100 people have committed suicide by jumping off.  This ominous past has lead to the haunting that has been widely reported today.  On foggy nights, there have been reports that you can hear the screams of the bridges victims.  Even more disturbing are the encounters people driving across the bridge have had.  

These experiences center on a ghost that haunts the bridge.  She is a young female hitchhiker, who will actually climb into peoples cars who stop for her at the bottom of the bridge.  She would very nervously explain that she had to get to the other side of the bridge.  As the drivers would get closer to the top, she would become more nervous and restless.  As the drivers would console her that she would be alright, she would simply vanish at the bridges pinnacle.  The interesting thing about these reports, are that many have involved out of state drivers unfamiliar with the local legends of the bridge.  One truck driver claimed to have picked up a young woman, who was soaking wet and she told him to drop her off on other side of bridge but as with all the other accounts, as he was crossing, she simply disappeared.  There have been many sightings of this woman on the bridge who many believe was a suicide victim, one of many jumpers on the bridge.  With a past that is engrossed around more than 200 deaths by horrible means, it is no wonder this bridge has become as haunted as it is to this day.

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