Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

I recently rediscovered the Courtney Campbell Causeway. You rarely hear about this bridge’s beauty these days. Normally the only mention that you hear of it is when there is a fatal crash or a well known figure is arrested there. The causeway is the northernmost bridge over Old Tampa Bay linking Pinellas and Hillsborough counties and is typical of the Floridian idea of a bridge.

Actually composed of several small islands linked by bridges, the causeway is a beautiful stretch of road for a driver. I prefer to go at night when the temperature is more reasonable and the traffic lighter. You can blast along at high speed with the windows down like Crockett and Tubbs in Miami Vice, palm trees zipping by and the night air thick in your hair. Or you can lope along at a comfortable pace enjoying the beauty of the last rays of the western sun hitting the tops of the palms trees and the hotels while down below the cars and restaurants have long since turned on their lights. You can pull off at several points where an access road and parking areas are open all night.

Fishermen launch boats off of the Causeway. Kids come out there to race and show off their modified cars. It’s a popular place to watch or set off fireworks. Couples come out do, uh, couple things. Other people come for the solitude and, I suspect, there are more than a few clandestine meetings here.

North of the causeway is a tangle of mangroves and salty marsh that hide troves of fish. South is the bay, laid out in dark blue splendor reflecting the city lights. Past the water you see the amber necklace of the Howard Frankland Bridge which is a few miles south of the causeway and far more heavily traveled. At either end of that necklace are clusters of city lights from offices, hotels, skyscrapers, malls. The other bridges, the simple two lane Gandy and the massive soaring Sunshine Skyway, are invisible at this elevation.

So the next night you have nothing to do and are thinking of going to Ybor or find a movie that you don’t really want to see anyway remember that there are a lot of fun places to go in Tampa Bay. Take a drive out to the causeway, bring a cooler and a couple of chairs and watch the sunset with somebody you care about because having fun does not always mean you have to pay a parking fee and a cover charge.

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