Interstate 275 (Florida)

Interstate 275 (Florida)

Interstate 275 (I-275) in the State of Florida is a 60.7 miles (97.7 km) long highway, serving the Tampa Bay Area. Its southern terminus is at Interstate 75 near Palmetto, where I-275 heads west towards the Sunshine Skyway Bridge crossing over Tampa Bay. I-275 then passes through St. Petersburg before crossing Tampa Bay once again on the Howard Frankland Bridge, and then it enters the City of Tampa, where it has an interchange with Interstate 4 in the middle of Tampa. After this interchange, I-275 passes north through the suburbs of Tampa to its northern terminus at Interstate 75 in Wesley Chapel.

Some say that Interstate 275 and its parent route, Interstate 75, follow the opposite of the usual conventions of freeway routing. Normally, the parent route runs through a metropolitan area while an Interstate with a three-digit number (beginning with an even number) serves as the bypass route. However, in this case I-275 runs through Tampa and St. Petersburg while I-75 serves as the bypass route.