A Piece of Gandy Bridge History

Postcard of Gandy Bridge Early Years

Original Gandy Bridge Toll Gate

Before the days of the Gandy Bridge, if you wanted to travel between St. Petersburg and Tampa, you had to drive north, around Tampa Bay.  It was a long and fairly arduous drive and because of that, St. Petersburg and Tampa felt as though they were worlds apart.  That all changed when George Gandy decided to build a bridge across the Bay.  It took several years of planning, then more years of waiting for World War I to be over, then more waiting while supplies began to become available again.  But eventually, in July of 1923, the first piling was placed to support the new bridge across the Bay. The new Gandy Bridge opened to great fanfare on November 20, 1924.  President Calvin Coolidge was invited to attend the opening, since he was already planning a pleasure trip to Florida.  From the October 29, 1924 issue of the St. Petersburg Evening Independent, a transcript of a wire that was sent to the President from the Gandy Bridge Company:  “Being informed that you are planning a pleasure trip to Florida in November, we respectfully invite you to dedicate the longest automobile toll bridge in the world in the hope that you might find it convenient to visit St. Petersburg and Tampa on November 20, upon which date Governor Hardee of Florida and the governors of many of the states have planned to be present for the occasion.”  The wire was signed: “Gandy Bridge Co.  George S. Gandy, President”.  Although I could not locate any articles indicating that President Coolidge took George Gandy up on his offer, this new bridge was clearly a very big deal and it started a new dynamic, both social and business based, between St. Petersburg and Tampa.  In fact, just a little over a year after the bridge opened, an article in the Feb 24, 1926 Evening Independent stated that traffic had doubled in one year and that there was already talk of a need for widening the bridge.  ”The figures show that a heavy traffic has crossed our bridge”, says President Gandy in his report. “On Sundays the bridge has furnished passage to as high as seven thousand machines”. 

Toll Gate Preservation Plaque

Although the Gandy Bridge has long been a free bridge between St. Petersburg and Tampa, when it first opened, and for many years following, it was a toll bridge.  It had been constructed with private funds and, in order to repay loans and make a profit, a toll was charged.  And so we arrive at the piece of Gandy Bridge history that I referred to in the title of this post.  One of the original toll gates constructed in 1923/1924 has been preserved and stands at the entrance to the now closed Friendship Trail Bridge, which is an old Gandy Bridge span, located just to the left of the Gandy Bridge as you approach from St. Petersburg.  If you’d like to see it close up, just turn left as you approach the Gandy Bridge at the sign for the last U turn before the bridge.  Follow the little roadway towards the Friendship Trail entrance and you’ll pretty much run right into the toll gate.

And, speaking of the Friendship Trail, there’s hope for repair, revitalization, and reopening in the future.  I’ll publish a post on this topic in the next couple of weeks.