Exit 2: US 41 to Port Manatee,
Palmetto and Bradenton
Palmetto and Bradenton
A part of the Tampa to Miami highway called the Tamiami Trail, US 41 was the way to go if you wanted to take a day trip to Miami from Tampa or St. Petersburg before Interstate 75 - and much faster access to Miami from Tampa and vice versa - was built. But with so much development in Southwest Florida from Bradenton and Sarasota to Ft. Myers and Naples the need for a limited access option to get from Tampa to Miami and vice versa was obvious. Fortunately, an extension of Interstate 75 from Tampa to Miami via the Alligator Alley was the answer. Today the real Tamiami Trail beckons as a two lane section of US 41 from Naples to Miami as it cuts across the Everglades; a trip on that section of Tamiami Trail makes a great day trip but traversing this section of Tamiami Trail from Naples to Miami at night is not recommended.
Exit 2 is a full service interchange, which was built in 1981 as an extant stub of Interstate 75 when it was built and opened to traffic in 1982 as part of the Interstate 75 segment from US 301 (Exit 224) in Ellenton to Big Bend Road (Exit 246) in southern HillSBorough County. In 1983 the highway was built further westward to connect with US 19 and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which was being rebuilt as a new cable stayed bridge replacing the twin cantilever bridges, one of them being the southbound span which was damaged on 9 May 1980 when the Summit Venture collided with an anchor support pier, sending 1,260 feet of the span into Tampa Bay and claiming the lives of 35 people including many on a Greyhound bus. Once the section west of US 41 was built - with overpasses at CSX Railroad's Palmetto Subdivision (AZA Line), Bayshore Road and Abel Road - it became another section of Interstate 275 which temporarily ended at the Sunshine Skyway's south toll plaza until the new Sunshine Skyway opened in 1987 and the remainder of the Sunshine Skyway system was brought up to interstate standards in the early to mid-1990's.
Exit 2 can be used to reach Port Manatee as well as Palmetto and Bradenton, all reached via US 41.
