The first bridge (steel structure) officially opened on October 30, 1958, crossing the narrow bar separating
Hamilton Harbour and the
Port of Hamilton from
Lake Ontario. This allows for
Great Lakes ship traffic to flow underneath while four lanes of
Golden Horseshoe road traffic may flow on top of it, neither disturbing the other. The bridge was designed by John Turner Bell. Construction of the entire Skyway required of steel and of concrete. The bridge had
tolls when constructed, but these were removed December 28, 1973 With the lifting of tolls on the bridge, trucks were then banned from using
Beach Boulevard. When traffic volume became more than the bridge could accommodate in the early 1980s, the bridge was twinned. The 1985 bridge was a conventional precast concrete box girder. When the new skyway (concrete structure) was opened on October 11, 1985, This included the overhead gantry signage for exit 97 on the northbound span of the skyway. On July 31, 2014, a man driving a
dump truck in its raised position crashed onto the top of the bridge frame on the Toronto-bound lanes. The bridge was closed for the weekend to make temporary repairs; permanent repairs to the bridge structure took seven months and cost $1.224 million. The driver was charged with impaired driving and tried in 2016, resulting in a conviction for dangerous driving in March 2016 and a one-year jail sentence. His conviction and sentence were upheld by the Ontario Court of Appeal. ==See also==