05-03-2025
A new Howard Frankland Bridge opens soon. People once protested the original span.
When the idea for a third bridge across Tampa Bay first bubbled up before the start of World War II, many objected.
The Courtney Campbell Causeway, originally called the Ben T. Davis Causeway, already linked Tampa and Clearwater. The Gandy crossed from Tampa to St. Petersburg. The toll operators that dominated both existing bridges didn't like the idea of a third thoroughfare pulling away competition.
Locals in the late 1930s also lamented the cost, saying another way across the water would be a waste of taxpayer money. Some called it 'a blow to private investment' and 'a hindrance to navigation.'
Others, according to Times archives, even worried about 'a tidal obstruction that could convert large areas into mud flats.' By 1939, the idea was dead.
Then a tire salesman named W. Howard Frankland came around and changed some minds. The bridge that bears his name finally opened on Jan. 15, 1960.
While we wait for the newest span of the bridge Tampa Bay knows so well, here's a look back at the history.
Frankland was born in Tennessee as the son of a horse buggy salesman. He moved to Tampa in 1925, where he founded Pioneer Tire and Rubber Products Inc. He spent some time as a banker and also was named Gasparilla king in 1950.
Frankland was a member of the State Road Board when he proposed a new bridge to cross Tampa Bay in 1953, reviving the idea that had failed more than a decade before.
The bridge would be a path for beachgoers to reach the white sands of Pinellas County, and then carry families back over to shop in Tampa.
When the Howard Frankland Bridge finally opened in 1960, locals hoped it would fix a problem the area is dealing with currently: a 'population explosion.'
'Our growth has been breathtaking,' wrote a then-St. Petersburg Times columnist in January 1960. 'New housing has gone up at a rate even the most optimistic persons would've regarded as fantastic 10 years ago; this has been accompanied by extensive commercial development — palmetto scrub fields have been turned into shopping centers, multi-million dollar manufacturing plants have been erected, hotels and motels have been constructed and improved."
Even though the Gandy Bridge had already gotten a second span at that point, raising the number of lanes to four, it wasn't enough to carry all of the people that flowed back and forth between Hillsborough and Pinellas. As people stewed in traffic on the Gandy, one St. Petersburg Times columnist wrote in 1960 that the sight of another bridge being constructed across the water 'offered promise of true relief.'
Frankland's name was bestowed upon the structure as a thank you for his advocacy. The opening day celebrations weren't as flashy as those for the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in 1954, which included a nationwide naming contest and 'bridge beauty' models to represent various nearby counties. But there was still fanfare.
Then-Governor LeRoy Collins delivered an address before leading a line of more than 1,000 motorists over the bridge from Tampa to St. Petersburg and back. Frankland's wife delivered a dedication to the structure and his young grandchildren cut the ribbon. Frankland's four brothers traveled from across the country for a special family reunion.
Newspaper columns following the event mostly praised the bridge, which not only provided a new way to get around but would also link Tampa to the national interstate system.
But one headline in the Tampa Tribune provided foreshadowing that won't surprise any locals reading this today:
'Traffic jams new bridge.'
Information from the Tampa Bay Times archive was used in this story.
