I kept having nightmares

Ironically the Sunshine Skyway was one of the first of that kind to be built in the US. It was the real start of that design “fad” here in North America. I don’t know what it is about that particular bridge, but I keep having nightmares about it. Never had any about the Key or Bay bridges, or even the Golden Gate with its insane body count. At least none that I recall. But last night, after writing about the Skyway, I had a terrible nightmare that woke me up. Oddly enough, I’ve never driven across, or even laid eyes upon that Tampa Bay terror. I started having nightmares about it not long after the Key Bridge collapsed when I happened to watch some online “drive over” videos of it, and looked at some pictures of it. I don’t remember a whole lot of last night’s nightmare, but I do remember the existential terror I experienced. I was in the water, not under the bridge, but just near by it, treading water. I’m a good swimmer so I wasn’t drowning in the dream, but just floating. No idea how I got in the water, as I don’t remember jumping or falling from the bridge. I was looking up at the massive concrete monster looming to my left, the tops of its sinister towers seemingly about to pierce the clouds. I feel as though I was trying to get away from it and trying to swim away. But like in so many nightmares, escaping the object of terror (by running, or in this case swimming) is usually impossible. Perhaps the current was pulling me towards the bridge, I don’t know… Suddenly I woke up, and realized I wasn’t in the water and the towering terror of Tampa Bay was only in my dream. But it did take me a while to go back to sleep…

I’ve had other nightmares about that Florida monster, and most were rather vague as far as my dreams generally go. I never have any sense of falling from the bridge, or having it crumble away or fall beneath me. Or even driving over it or being on it. I see the bridge very vividly, I am near it, and always I am in absolute dread. Heart pounding, gut wrenching, cold sweat inducing terror is what I feel in those dreams. Ever since I was a child I’d occasionally have nightmares like that. I’d be in some place, or in the presence of some thing or object, and be filled with an all consuming sense of terror and dread. Nothing was coming at me or chasing me in those dreams. I was simply facing something that shook me to the core with fear, and it was an all encompassing fear that was impossible to escape.