(first posted 8/8/2015) That, way back there in the distance, is the Mackinac Bridge. First, let’s get the measurements out of the way before we get a little closer to it. The bridge spans nearly five miles, with its suspended bits stretching around 3800 feet, good for 16th in the world. It has the longest span between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere (suck on that, Golden Gate Bridge) and it also takes 7 years to paint the thing, with the process starting all over again once it’s finished. I wonder if that gets demoralizing. The towers, at 552 feet above water, are the tallest non-radio-tower structures in Michigan outside of Detroit, and if you add the 210 feet below water, they’re almost 50 feet taller than the Renaissance Center.
Michigan has two peninsulas, the Upper Peninsula and the Lower Peninsula. I imagine that geography-savvy World Citizens will understand us when we talk about Upper Michigan and Lower Michigan, but Upper Michigan is also called the UP by Michigan natives. I recently discovered that outside of Michigan (and probably the immediate surrounding states) no one has heard of the UP. It’s a local term, and now all of you know it, too. Two more local terms are Yooper and troll. Yoopers are people from the UP, and trolls are people from Lower Michigan. Why trolls? Well, because they live under The Bridge. Yes, we are very clever here in Michigan.
The Bridge is a point of pride in Michigan. Wikipedia will tell you that it’s locally known as Mighty Mac or Big Mac. It’s so not. I’ve never heard anyone refer to it in those words. If you say The Bridge in Michigan, chances are good that people will understand exactly what you’re talking about. When you’ve got a striking, 5-mile-long, green and white monument to engineering like this, there can really be only one thing you’re talking about. It shows up on some of our license plates and is an excellent landmark by which to identify ourselves with.
There are several places one can stop at to take in views of The Bridge. I did not have a chance to stop when we were heading north this time, but there is a beautiful park around the southern base of The Bridge and Fort Michilimackinac, including the reconstructed Fort itself. Where we stopped was the Bridge View Park on the north shore. It has a building playing what I assumed to be a video loop of indeterminate length about the Bridge’s history and engineering, while the building itself has a series of pictures and articles chronicling the area’s history with crossing the Straits of Mackinac.
The floor is pretty neat, too. It’s your basic commercial-grade tiling, but done in the design of a map of the Great Lakes. My son thought this was particularly cool and spent almost five minutes asking questions about our home and our travels and what those places over there are (the Niagara Falls). You’ll have to excuse the potato-level photograph. I’m only 5’11” and there was no way to get any higher for a clearer picture.
The landscaping is nice with flowers all around and several people besides me tried their hand at capturing an image of the Bridge with vibrant blooms in the foreground. Lake Michigan (or the Straits of Mackinac, I’m not really sure how to differentiate between the two, and besides, this is a car website, not a geography one) came up to the rocky shores on our sunny, windy afternoon in waves and splashed all over my kids. The water itself was surprisingly warm. My experience with the Great Lakes did not prepare me for such a welcoming feeling. I kind of wish we had stopped earlier along the lakeshore to go swimming.
The Bridge had always been the toughest and most welcome part of my drive between college and my hometown. Constant, gusting crosswinds make relaxed driving impossible, and they actually have a service where Bridge workers will drive your car across for you if you don’t feel up to it at no cost. The metal grating that serves as the middle lanes (one in each direction) also make cars track funny, always shifting about. You’re never quite able to go in a perfectly straight line, and between that and the crosswinds you need to be on top of correcting your path. It’s not the most difficult thing I’ve faced when driving, but I suspect that without doing it every day you never really get used to it (I still haven’t).
Crossing the Mackinac Bridge has always felt like coming home to me. When I travel north, I know that once I’m across it I have about 3 hours left until I get back to Marquette. The scenery changes, becoming simultaneously sandier and rockier, with tiny dots of civilization separated by many dozens of miles. I had the good fortune of working for some great people at a local grocer in the south end of town for almost a year and a half. Even ten years later, I’m greeted with warm smiles when I stop by. It really makes a place feel like home when you have connections with people there. Our last 7 years in Japan are proof of that, too, but that’s a whole other story.
Of course, heading south it’s something of a homecoming as well. My parents still live in the same house just inside Michigan next to Toledo, making me a troll as well as a Yooper. After 3 hours traveling from Marquette to the Bridge, I am faced with 5 more to the last exit before leaving Michigan for Ohio. The magic of the Bridge is that despite being longer it feels shorter. No, it’s not a perfect halfway point, but it is a welcome sight nonetheless. It shimmers in the sunshine during the day, and glows under the darkness of night.
Sometimes I think that it’s really too bad that the Mackinac Bridge isn’t more famous, or more popular. The Golden Gate Bridge or the Brooklyn Bridge get a lot of national love, being proudly featured in movies and comic books and the like. But at the same time, those are densely populated urban areas, and the Straits of Mackinac aren’t, like, at all. Then it occurs to me that we’re pretty lucky to have it all to ourselves. Michigan couldn’t do better for a symbol than this magnificent bridge.
NOTE: Final image borrowed from Wikipedia Commons.
I’ve had the pleasure of crossing it twice, once each direction, separated by about 20 years. The UP is one of my favorite drives/places on earth, and the bridge is fantastic. Highly recommended. Nice article.
A yooper fan here. I live in Houghton and read most posts. I’ve gotten pretty adept at crossing the middle grated lane at 65 mph in my 2,700lb Ford Fiesta. A Yugo driven by a young lady going to visit her boyfriend blew off the bridge in the early 90’s, so you do have to be attentive. The center lane is grated to allow wind to pass through. Steinman designed the bridge to withstand 365 mph winds; the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was only a few years before.
Yup, my first car was a ’97 Hyundai Accent, probably smaller than your Fiesta, and I cross the Bridge numerous times in that thing during college! We live in Marquette, now, but the Keweenaw is a really beautiful place, too.
My children visited our home state for the fist time since leaving in 05, my daughter was a month old when she and her mother came down south to Mississippi which we left for Texas when she was 6mos old. My son showed up almost 10mos later becoming our anchor baby. They asked if Michigan was a forest LOL. I miss the drives in and around Michigan, cool breezes, windows down, the smell of the lakes….good times.
The footage of Galloping Gertie(Tacoma Narrows Bridge) collapsing is incredible. Even more amazingly, cars continue to drive onto the buckling bridge. I’m sure the footage is on YouTube.
A friend of mine lived on the Tacoma Narrows and he told me that the old bridge was still underneath the water…
A long time ago I did a term paper on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge and its collapse. It was built too narrow for its length, which is what helped facilitate the harmonic that took it down.
To quibble, Galloping Gertie’s demise was attributed to aerodynamic flutter, not resonance as is often claimed. The film is definitely available on YouTube.
Correct. Also, the flutter was promoted by the unusual shallowness of the truss carrying the roadway. The replacement span has a much deeper truss.
Definitely on my bucket list! It is a bit out of the way as I am in Southern CA, but I’ll get there eventually.
Here’s the 9-min. U.S. Steel (color) film of the construction (Lowell Thomas narrating); the screen-cap is the only CC-type moment, alas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFsy_EHWM-Q
Just ate a pastie with spouse looking at the bridge, I have walked the Mackinaw bridge twice with family and then with my daughter, very cool to see fixtures and cables up close. I think you left off another code name for tourists, we call them fudgees! Great post!
Fudgees! I’ve been a fudgee myself. I probably haven’t heard that one because I haven’t lived that close to the Bridge! Mackinac fudge is delicious, though.
Technically I am a troll, I live half way between Detroit and Ann Arbor, we have property near Petoskey and up until the age of 19, I spent the entire summer up north with family, so I consider myself a native northerner even though I live and work near Ann Arbor, I did spend the entire 7th grade up in Alanson, so we learned what we call the tourists in that time frame, a lot of fudge is made in the region and sold to a lot of tourists!
I’ve been across this bridge at least once, and it is definitely one of the biggies of North America.
While I haven’t yet watched the film Sally Sublette linked, the picture she shows is fascinating…it’s either an asphalt bridge deck – which is highly unusual – or, more likely, an asphalt overlay which adds a lot of dead load to the structure.
Wife and I spent a week in the campground (state park) near the northern landing of the bridge. She is from Lansing and we were going to a family reunion in 2004 or thereabouts. We went to Taquamenon (sp?) falls where I learned that it doesn’t matter which way the slow current is going. In a canoe the wind matters more. Much more. The bridge is quite impressive and I had heard about it. One of our sons was stationed on a coast guard cutter near the bridge. He remembered the winters there quite well. Probably why he lives in Texas now.
An unforgettable trip that I would like to repeat but it’s a long way from East Texas.
The Tahquamenon river freezes over, in Winter, and one can actually walk up it to the lower falls. It’s a long hike, over the ice, and the falls freeze gold-and-white, retaining the gold in the water from the falls. (The gold is actually caused by Tannins from the cedar swamps which the river drains from.)
The hike up the river, in Winter, isn’t bad at all…until the sun sets. Then the temperatures drop swiftly, and the iced-over river becomes a wind-tunnel. I’ve never been so cold in my life, as when I walked back to the car with my family. My dad and cousin had it worse, though. They stepped on a patch of thin ice, and fell into the river underneath. Good thing it’s not that deep. They had to walk back, in blisteringly freezing wind and temperatures, in the dark, in wet clothing. (i.e. We all arrived together, but they had it the worst.) That was the first time in my life that I wanted to sit down and rest because I was so cold and tired and knew that, if I did, I’d never get up again.
I felt like a rookie thinking I could just float down the river. Never would think about making the trip in the winter. You’re lucky everyone survived the hypothermia. Killed a lot more folks on the titanic than anything else. Of course they couldn’t get out of the water.
Just in case I might want to try that again some day, I have a ball cap to remind me. Beautiful, beautiful area though. My wife hails from there but the only time we feel like visiting is summer.
My Volare immigrated from Arizona in the ’90s, and except the first plate, it has the Mackinac Bridge plate since mid ’90s but I know how rare my current plate is going to be. ( I don’t like the black letters really )
And this car really handles horribly on bridge. The front end is very vulnerable to wind and it really gets worse with the metal track.
I weekly travel between metro Detroit and Gaylord, it’s a long ride but yours is even longer. I traveled from Soo to Southfield in a roll once, that’s really a long ride. Because most of my route is north-south, the climate change dramatically during the days, and it’s not rare to feel the car switching from cold to warm around West Branch when set at 77. During winter, I can see the water freezing on my windshield.
Alas, to those of us not from Michigan the Mackinac Bridge is remembered, if at all, for one thing: the death of Leslie Ann Pluhar.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-10-03/news/8901190020_1_suspension-bridge-accident-car
Quite often one can hear tourists mispronouncing it as the “Mackinack” Bridge…
In the late 1960s, our family missed the only chance we had to drive across the bridge. We had three choices for traveling from the Lower Peninsula of Michigan to Wisconsin
and Minnesota: the Mackinac Bridge, the highways through northern Indiana, and the Chesapeake and Ohio ferry across Lake Michigan. We took the ferry.
Well, the Golden Gate may be shorter in distance, but I bet it takes longer to cross, at least in rush hour or heavy tourist season 🙂
I went over the Mackinac bridge twice and I can’t say I enjoyed it. My mother and I wanted to visit relatives out West, and we always tried to go a different way and I decided to go “the scenic route” and go up through the area and over the bridge. The trip over the bridge on the way there wasn’t too bad, I’m not crazy about heights anyway, and mom, well, she worried about everything. We had our 3 dogs with us and the grate noise got one of them into basket case mode. We got to our destination, Pierre, SD without any incident, except I almost hit a deer in Minnesota. On the way back, we had a blowout in ND, and it took forever to get a tow truck, then we had to have a replacement wheel brought in, as it was discovered the (Aftermarket) wheel had cracked. The town we were in made Pierre look exciting. We did have a great meal at some bar type place though, the steaks were fantastic. As we got to the bridge, a storm rolled in and the trip over the bridge was pretty scary, as the wind hit about 60MPH on gusts and it seemed like it was gusting the entire time we were passing over the bridge. My mom closed her eyes the entire time, “If I look I’m gonna puke!”. I wish I could have done the same thing, my guts were churning the entire time we were going over. The only time I remember getting that bad was when I was up on the roof of a hotel being built in Las Vegas about 1979 and it was windy as hell, and I looked down when I was about 3 feet from the edge. I would have sworn the whole building was swaying, but I guess it was just me.
Thanx for the detailed post ! .
-Nate
Still it isn’t the Golden Gate Bridge
No, it isn’t. It’s far better than the Golden Gate, and serves a far more important service as a connector. The Bridge is also far more beautiful than the rusty-colored Golden Gate.
Tongue in cheek, right. Nonetheless, I think the world has made their decision about the bridge. Of the top two most photographed sites in the U.S. it is one of them along with the Statue of Liberty. When it comes to the most visited, being free and easily accessible, it is #1. On any given weekend walking the bridge is like walking the halls of the United Nations.
The only day the bridge can be walked is Labor Day. Up until a couple of years ago, one side was closed for walking and the other side was two-way one lane traffic. There were school buses to ferry walkers back south.
After people began to drive into crowds, the bridge was closed completely for half the day. One can walk halfway across, turn around walk the return. One can still walk all the way across but the school buses are gone. One has to make one’s own return arrangements.
Many times in the past it was the last thing a sailor saw and the first thing back home
Many the mighty have been under her
While some said goodbye for the last time
That bridge sounds like hell on a motorcycle.
Metal bridges are treacherous on a bike, especially if it’s wet from a recent rain and gusty. I’ve never gotten used to them. Oregon uses this sign on all it’s metal bridges:
I’ve been riding 40 years now, and from the description in this article, that’s a bridge on my Do Not Cross list.
My very first thought Syke ~
I hate metal mesh bridges on Motos .
-Nate
I crossed it on Memorial Day ’01 on my ST1100. A nice day during the crossing (ugly rain and cold started further west on US 2 about an hour later). The bridge was Not too bad, actually, and I was forced to use the metal grate lane due to work going on over in the paved lane. The bike didn’t wander too badly, but I did NOT like looking down to see whitecaps far below under my feet. That wasn’t so cool. I kept my eyes up the rest of the way across!
I’m a bit of an acrophobe and a biker and highly doubt that I could ride over that bridge. I have enough trouble on the St Rt 611 bridge in Lorain Ohio, also a high suspension bridge.
@ Roger :
LOL ! me , I like heights (I enjoy the fear) and used to torture my poor ex wife by getting her out in the middle of some high bridge and then pointing down and saying ‘ hey , what’s that ? ‘ ~ I bet they heard her screams two states away .
I’m older and (slightly) less childish now .
I’d think riding over this bridge and seeing the whitecaps would be cool ! .
Are you allowed to stop on or walk across it ? .
-Nate
I can relate to the “halfway point that feels like home” phenomenon – I like to say that (starting from Burlington, VT) when you’re going to Albany it’s a long way to Albany, when you’re coming back from the NYC area or points beyond Albany feels like almost home. It’s where you pay the Thruway toll and I-87 continues as the toll-free Adirondack Northway, it’s where the Dutch placenames give way to French ones, and it’s where you can start picking up some of the stronger hometown radio stations, starting with Vermont Public Radio.
But it’s still another three hours…
It’s been 40 years since I lived up there, but we lived up in Burlington area (left Shelburne in early 80’s). We weren’t headed for NYC but rather northeastern PA where relatives on both sides lived (unfortunately few left now), so rather than going all the way down we’d pick up route 84 around Newburg and head west into NEPA. We moved to Burlington in 1965, left in 1969, and my Dad got transferred back in 1975, left in early 80’s (though my Niece still lives in South Burlington, don’t get to see her much, we live 2000 miles away now).
Of course, we did that trip many times, we always went down rt 7 to 22a into Whitehall NY and onto the Northway usually stopping in Clifton Park at Wendys (we tried to do our exits before we got to the thruway to avoid tolls due to intermediate stops for food and gas)…so for me the big demarkation of course was getting onto the Northway in Glens Falls NY after several hours of 2 lane roads (or mostly 2 lane roads, haven’t been that way in 40 years, but guessing it is similar but widens briefly through some towns). Coming home was tougher, usually you’re tired from the trip, and just wanting to get home, but you had to get through the 2 lane roads till you got home.
We never took the ferry or northern bridges; in the late 70’s when I was undergraduate at UVM, I was lucky not to work for break between fall and spring semesters, and I’d take a week or two visiting my relatives without my parents in January, which of course we’d have to keep our eyes on the weather for storms, but also gas shortages, as cars didn’t get great mileage even with bigger tanks and there were a couple stretches were there weren’t a lot of service stations some of which may have been out of fuel (in fact were more likely to be, since “everybody” took same precaution to fill up at same stations in that stretch). I was also lucky that I added a radio to my Datsun (didn’t come with one nor speakers) which I bought at Lafayette electronics and added OEM A pillar antenna, though on at least one trip my Sister came with me so I had someone to talk to while driving.
Never been on Mackinac bridge though…wouldn’t mind visiting, hardly ever get up that way (only been to Michigan on business rather than pleasure trip).
I think they close the bridge if the wind rises above a certain level. Under normal circumstances, it’s not so bad. Although unnerving at first, after a few minutes, you acclimatize and adjust to the gusts and buffeting, soon realizing that the chances of being swept over are virtually nonexistent. I get the feeling that the sole person who managed it might have went over any bridge with the way she reportedly bounced around off the sides like a pinball before going over.
Wasn’t she driving a Yugo? Which added to the legend?
Yeah, the whole thing sounds pretty goofy and a definite fluke. This was in the era before texting and distracted driving, so the only thing I can figure is she got hit by a big gust of wind, panicked, and must have spun the steering wheel like crazy. A small car, big gust of wind, and driver error isn’t a good combination on any bridge, and it’s worth noting that in its 48 year history, her’s was the only fatality from going over the side. Vehicles going over the sides of bridges happens all the time, and few of them are similar to the Mackinac Bridge.
BTW, does anyone know if the toll is round-trip, or you have to pay both ways?
The toll is one way and by the axle over two axles.
The toll is collected on the north end of the bridge either way you are going. As far as I know there is no round trip ticket. I have always paid cash (not sure about any other payment method). My last trip over the bridge was in June (both ways).
I don’t find that my car (or previous cars) had any trouble with the grid part, but I don’t like driving on it and slow down. Usually there is a work crew nearby when you have to get off the paved part, so slow is required anyway. Speed limit is 45 on the bridge.
They have some kind of fast-pass service, but I think you still have to stop at the toll booth and get a card swiped.
The Bridge wasn’t designed to handle the much lighter cars of the ’80s, such as the Yugo and the Chevette. IIRC, the driver in question was speeding, during high wind conditions, lost control of her car and it went over the safety rail rather than into it. They’ve since redesigned the safety rail, so that this doesn’t happen.
I don’t know whether it’s still the case, but it used to be that in high wind conditions they’d wait until a semi was ready to cross, and then put three or so cars on the leeward side of the semi as a windbreak for the cars crossing the bridge.
Basically, as regards the grating, which some folks have expressed concerns about: The outside lane is concrete, and the ride over it is like a normal road. The grating, on the inside lanes, makes a rather unique howl, when traveling over it.
And yes, the toll is for each crossing, not for a round trip, as not everyone makes round trips across the bridge.
Wrong bridge for this post. That’s the Golden Gate not Mackinac.
Troll here! Mi. troll that is. Anyways, if your going north up to the UP, take Michigan’s version of route 66. It’s the old hwy 31 that runs along the west coast, great scenery & little towns.
I’d add that US23 down the Lake Huron coast is wonderful as well, although I guess you’ll have to take some different roads to go up into the Thumb… In fact, if you enter Michigan from Toledo (or from Gary, either side) and just follow the water, you’ll have a pretty spectacular adventure.
I grew up across the St.Clair River from Michigan, and spent a lot of time there as a kid. My wife and I went over the Mackinac Bridge during a trip through Michigan in 1995. We’d driven from my sister’s place in Midland and passed over it enroute to the Soo on a breezy October afternoon. Our Dodge Shadow handled it without much drama, and it was great to drive such a long, high expanse with the water way, way down there. We stayed overnight in the Soo and found a good Mexican restaurant steps from our motel. I wouldn’t mind going back and doing some photography in the UP. Great place.
Excellent article on a fascinating engineering marvel. I have crossed it probably a half dozen times and it is a little spooky, especially the steel grating. I have had thoughts of doing the “circle tour” around Lake Michigan on the motorcycle, but at over 900 miles I just can’t take the time off work this year.
I always spend some time at the park before I cross. It is just a beautiful structure to look at.
My Uncle was an auto hauler all his life and he told me that some truckers got so spooked driving that bridge that they would ask for a replacement driver to the other side. I’ve crossed the Blue Water bridge many times and even been stuck half way across due to lineups at customs and I can tell you that one shakes (My wife had to lay down in the back of our Windstar so she didn’t have to look) Having lived next to Michigan my whole life in Ontario I’ve wondered why Upper Michagan doesn’t apply for separate statehood–seems like two different cultures.
They have, actually, but since the completion of the Bridge it’s much better connected to Lower Michigan than during its early history, and the last big push for it was in the early 70s with a guy named Jacobetti who has his name on a few things up here in Marquette.
I think the main reason is that they’d lose almost all of their tax base, which is in southeastern Michigan (aka, greater Detroit).
If the would have “seceded,” the name would have been “Superior,” apparently.
I did a research paper on the Mighty Mac for a college class in the past, largely because I have a ton of materials on it. Any book by Lawrence Rubin (the executive secretary for the Mackinac Bridge Authority at the time) is worth reading if you want to know about the building of the bridge.
As close as I live to Michigan, you would think that we might have driven this bridge, but no. Great idea for a weekend trip.
I actually did get there once, at about 6 years old on a camping trip with my parents and sister. Enjoyable and useful piece, this.
Not bad-for Michigan!
Great article! I was born in Marquette while my father was in college there. I grew up in Traverse City, which is a few hours south of the bridge. We used to go there at least once a summer and often would take the ferry over to Mackinac Island with our bikes–no cars allowed on the island, so it was pretty exotic as a kid. My mom was deathly afraid of the bridge and would closer he eyes the whole way while my father drove across–we always thought that was funny.
My father was very good friends with Ms. Pluhar’s bother Gene.
While driving over the bridge is a bit scary, it is nothing like driving over the Going to the Sun Road through Glacier Park. I have done that one more than once.
As someone who has done both, I wholeheartedly agree. Going to the Sun road is intense.
I actually witnessed one of the most moronic things I’ve seen on the road while there in 1997; it was record breaking 95 degree heat, and there was much more water runoff from all the snow melt as a result. Someone in an Integra GS-R decided it would be a wise idea to cut across the road to drive into and underneath the Weeping Wall. Long story short the sunroof shattered, likely from a rock in the falls. The two in the car got out and were completely hysterical and angry that the park could “allow such a thing to happen”…
Hahaha, that’s hilarious! And now, it’s something I really want to do. I mean, not drive under the water like an idiot, but drive the Going To The Sun Road. That’s a really neat picture, too.
Hilarious unlike the moronic college students who come blazing down that fantastic road in the old 1937 White Motor Coaches full of Tourists , scaring the living hell out of mom , dad and grandpa…..
The Road To the Sun truly is a place to put on most everyone’s bucket list .
SWMBO gets scared on any bridges so I have to sort of sneak then up on her….
-Nate
Rumpole of the Bailey?
” Rumpole of the Bailey?”
Need to write some more of those hilarious books ! .
Long time no new Rumpole stories =8-( .
-Nate
Out here in the wild west it was a series on PBS. I have not looked for the books in our library.
I prefer to read as I find my own mental images always are superior to T.V.’s .
Plus , I can close my book any time whereas the fucking Telly never gets shut off so I hate it now .
-Nate
I find all bridges are engineering marvels!
For me, my favorite has been and always will be the Golden Gate Bridge. Wifey and I walked and drove it in 2006 & 2009 and I have been on it before when in the service, both on foot and driving.
How about an article on the Millau Viaduct in France? That thing is a monster of the Nth degree!
How long is the distance on the steel grating on the Mackinac bridge? If longer than a quarter mile, it would really be aggravating, especially when the wind is up! Our Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati also has metal grating and is weird to drive on, constantly wobbling back and forth. The original Chain-of-Rocks barge canal bridge on Rte. 66 near St. Louis also had grating, and I believe, but not sure if the old St. Charles bridge over the Missouri river had it too.
Speaking of bridges, the original Rte. 66 Chain-of-Rocks bridge over the Mississippi river also had its challenge – a 23° turn in the middle – not a curve, but a direct kink! Now THAT was scary when meeting a semi coming the other way at the “kink”, especially when you’re sixteen and recently got your license and that was your first time driving across that bridge! Although the lanes were a bit wider at that point, there was almost NO room for error.
I really like articles like this, even if they aren’t strictly about cars. Big things that move, structures to aid big things that move- all related – AND appreciated! Thank you, Matt!
You’re welcome! I’d say that the metal grating is up over a mile long. It extends past both support towers (I’m not sure what else to call them) and it feels like it covers like half the distance between the UP and Lower Michigan. We had no choice but to ride on it the whole way this time as the outer asphalt lanes were closed due to maintenance.
Having moved to Michigan in 1998, I quickly became familiar with the term “troll”. Shortly after moving here, we went up to the car show on Father’s Day in St. Ignace and spent a weekend on Mackinaw Island, too. I occasionally find bridges intimidating, particularly the Peace Bridge near Buffalo, NY going over to Ontario and Niagara Falls. So the first time on the Mighty Mac, I was intimidated. But our first Aztek handled like a champ on the bridge deck and there were no issues.
Every Labor Day weekend, the bridge is closed to traffic and the public is invited to walk across from the northern end of the bridge to the southern end. I’ve done it twice now and even with my fear of heights, the view from the top point of the deck of the bridge is just fantastic! I’m surprised this little tradition wasn’t mentioned in the article.
Several years ago, the History Channel TV series, Modern Marvels did a show on the Mackinac Bridge, it was an hour explaining the technology and engineering behind it all. they also gave interviews with some of the surviving construction workers who helped build the bridge. It’s a great show if you can find it online or catch it on the channel.
Yooper (resident of the Upper Peninsula) or Trollie (resident of the Lower Peninsula), I think that all Michiganders are proud of the Mighty Mac. Even transplanted Buckeyes are, too.
I saw that Modern Marvels when I was still in college. I always thought the Bridge was cool, but that gave me a whole new level of appreciation for it.
Geo, I remember watching that program too! I always enjoy programs like that.
Here is footage of HMY Britannia transiting the Straits of Mackinac going under the bridge with Queen Elizabeth on board. She was on her way to Chicago. This was her only visit to the US as Queen of Canada, on the occasion of the opening of the St.Lawrence seaway.
http://youtu.be/XqITDX8vPOg
I have driven over the bridge several times, once in a ’35 Plymouth street rod, and still am not used to it. Of course, I have never liked those open deck bridges. I tried to stay on the pavement all that I could.
My late inlaws were Yoopers and kept a cabin in the UP for many years. I always loved going up there to visit.
My father in law once told me that before the bridge, you might have to wait in line for up to 6 hours for your turn on the ferry.
Was just commenting recently that it has been far to long since we went “up north” – ten years this summer. Usually we’d spend a few days in St . Ignace and a day on the Island before heading north to “the Soo” so I could watch lake freighters at the locks.
I’ve always liked the fewer people and calmer environment of St. Ignace over staying in Mackinaw City.
Worked with a Great Lakes wheelsman (Cleveland Cliffs Steamship Company – so you know he was no spring chicken) that used to say everyone should see Mackinac Island before they lay their bones down.
Love the “sunset” Michigan license plate that features the bridge.
Quite the bridge. Haven’t travelled over it yet, but hopefully someday.
Here in Maryland we have the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, a twin span, 4.3 mile long, 200 ft. high bridge that spans the Chesapeake Bay. High on various “scariest bridges in the world” lists, the eastbound span is only 2 narrow lanes and the westbound 3. Heavily travelled as the only feasible route from Baltimore and Washington to Maryland’s Eastern Shore. In its 62 years (42 for the westbound span) one car and one truck have gone over the side (both in the last 8 years), despite MD transportation officials saying for years it was impossible.
Have driven over it well over a hundred times and really never enjoyed it. Sides are quite low with the feeling of water everywhere. Many passengers make the trip with their eyes closed on the backseat floor. It too has a popular “drive over” service that will drive fearful drivers across.
I’ve sailed under this bridge a few times. It is quiet an impressive sight. I have been told that visiting royalty commented on how extravagant it was to build a bridge of this size ‘from nowhere to nowhere’.
“suck on that, Golden Gate Bridge” (?) WTF? Are you OK?
truly a michigan landmark. love the night lights from many spots around the straights. wilderness state park is a favorite place just west of the bridge.
i walked it once with my family and grandfather would love to run it on labor day sometime.
as kids we used to see who would spot it first when traveling on vacation. now i live out of state and when i tried that with my own family they just looked at me like – it’s just a bridge dad. some things do not translate across state lines!
Ah, the Mackinac! I remember reading how it’s considered one of the scariest bridges to cross, and being puzzled when I actually crossed it. But then, like CPJ, I’m a Marylander, and cross the Chesapeake Bay at least twice a year….
I loved the UP! People outside the Upper Midwest seem to overlook the Great Lakes, but it’s an area worth visiting. I developed a fascination with them from two disparate sources: I’m a geographer by training (and trade, right now), and the idea of inland lakes so large is just an astounding one (Superior was like an ocean in person!). And then, Gordon Lightfoot. Who would guess that writing a dirge about the sinking of a cargo ship would be so inspirational? It got me to the UP (and the Soo Locks and Whitefish Bay, specifically), and allowed me to discover a place I probably never would have, otherwise.
Love these well-timed original/reposts; this one fittingly during vacation season. Not just an entertaining read/re-read, but informative for anyone visiting the region over the summer.
It might just be me but the thing that bothered me more than the cross-winds while crossing the bridge were the big, damn (sea?) bugs hitting the windshield. And not just any bugs. These were some big ones that left dime-sized white smears that, by the end of the five miles, were bad enough that I had no choice but find a gas station to wipe-off the windshield. Then, the same thing on the return trip. Much worse than fighting the wind.
I love how they call it The Bridge. Kinda like The Wall at Fenway.
2005 was the year my wife and I decided to vacation up in Sioux St Marie, from our home in Mentor-on-the-Lake, Ohio (about 30 miles East of Cleveland, on the shore of Lake Erie.) It was August, so we expected some cooler temps. Plus we had never traveled there before, so thought it would be a little adventure. The Mackinac Bridge was our first adventure on the way up. We just weren’t expecting such A gigantic bridge, nor the great expanses of water in every direction! I was driving my ’94 Mercury Grand Marquis LS, so the car was reasonably stable crossing the bridge. However, one is so high up, and the water seems so far down while stretching out in every direction, that I was not a little tense! Thankfully it wasn’t night! On the way home the bridge wasn’t quite as scary, but the cross winds along with that disturbing grate roadway still kept tensions high!
If you live in any of the suburbs of NYC, it’s always referred to as The City.
I missed this in 2015, so a delight to read it today. I’ve drive over a few times, and was more nervous than I should have been, I guess. But, The Bridge at its windy worst it can be a handful, we’re told.
It is very cool to have such an immense structure “in the middle of nowhere” (so to speak) rather than attached to a major metro area, and so always fun to come upon it from either the UP or from the south.
There must be plenty of construction images online, but “Mighty Mac” is the book you’d want to buy as a souvenir from one of the nearby bookstores: https://www.wsupress.wayne.edu/books/detail/mighty-mac
For the CC crowd, here’s a photo from the late-1950s opening, and I do believe that’s the Chrysler Imperial Parade Phaeton there:
Here you go:
Gol that’s a large span with deck high above the water…
makes one wonder if a good man couldn’t slip an aircraft below it?
Not too large, just maybe something like a long-range bomber?
It was done about a year ago with a Cessna. I don’t know if anyone got the tail number. Last I heard, authorities were still seeking the pilot.
Copycat
My dad was a Navy pilot (‘aviator’) and said that some hotshit flew a Navy jet under the Golden Gate in the 1960s. He was promptly grounded and lost his wings for that stunt. Squadron commanders don’t have any sense of humor when it comes to dumb f**kery like this, he said.
That’s funny.
Well, to some. 🙂
Not sure if it’s the same pilot, but I sort of recall reading that a pilot who buzzed beneath the Golden Gate was of course busted down. Then, when some elite group was being assembled for some mission, he was specifically requested by description of his exploit.
My buddy is an old yooper and he claims that enterprising young men would station themselves on either side of the bridge back in the day and offer to drive the height averse across in the fearful persons car. The non-driver usually laid down in the back seat till all was safe.
In other words it’s like driving over a cheese grater doing 60 mph, 200 feet above one of the world’s largest fresh water lakes with zero wind break. It’s beautiful but no thanks. Last time I drove over a grated bridge the bridge grooves drove my car for me.
I took my Honda Valkyrie across the bridge a couple of years ago. The outside lanes are concrete and that is great on a motorcycle, but on the return trip the outside lanes were closed and I had to use the inside open metal bridge deck lanes instead. That is definitely not fun on a motorcycle!
My big road bike kept trying to wander across the metal bridge deck which is not fun for 5 miles. Plus you have to focus on the idea that if anything goes wrong you are either either going into oncoming traffic or laying the bike down on essentially a giant cheese grater. It’s a beautiful bridge but not a great motorcycle ride.
Very cool. I hope to traverse it some day.
“It has the longest span between anchorages in the Western Hemisphere…(at five miles)”. I don’t know what the span between anchorages is on the Confederation Bridge from PEI to New Brunswick, but that bridge is apparently measured at 8 miles long. I have no experience on that bridge either, so cannot comment on the relative length of the two bridges. But, the question remains for me – which one is the longest?
I first learned of the UP from a guy who was from there, and had moved to Arizona. He tried to get back to the UP every few years on vacations.
I don’t trust bridges and I don’t care how big they are, how famous they are, or how high they are. Bridges collapse with cars on them. I can admire them, but driving across them causes me great anxieties. It is one of my phobias. I have to stay in the middle lanes, ignore where I am, and practically hold my breath. I do not look down.
There are too many bridges that are unmaintained and are unsafe.
I have crossed most of the famous ones here in the States. The Mackinac bridge is one of them. I do not like crossing it, especially in winter. There are about a dozen other bridges that I struggle to cross. The Golden Gate, the Chesapeake Bay bridge, the Tampa Bay Sunshine bridge, the Tappan Zee/Cuomo bridges, the Boston Harbor bridges, the Royal Gorge, the Bixby Creek bridge, and the old hanging trestles at the top of Rollins Pass Colorado. Not a fan of the Hoover Dam bridge either.
Bridges collapse. I don’t trust them.
Not to add to your list of reasons not to go across bridges, but one of the worst collisions I was ever involved in was on the Burlington bridge, near Hamilton Ont. A tractor trailer changed lanes one lane to the right, and clipped a Honda Accord or Prelude (can’t remember now), flipping that Honda right across the lane in front of him, and into to guard rail in the left most lane, coming to a rest, facing – me. I was oncoming, saw the Honda coming across the highway, hit the binders, and just barely, almost, stopped in time. His Honda was damaged on all exterior panels, including where I tapped him in his front bumper. The truck driver was charged with careless driving, but in court they reduced it to unsafe lane change, despite the evidence at the scene that he was under the influence of some kind of keep-awake pills.
Anyway, I remember sitting on the side lane of that bridge when the police arrive and pulled us all over, and feeling the bridge flex with passing traffic. We weren’t all that high up, but it sure was a discomforting feeling.
Yeah, they do that, and it’s infuriating. One bright, dry Toronto day we were eastbound on Dupont, just past Christie, headed for the entrance to the car park of the grocery at that corner. As we approached and got in the left lane to turn left into the car park, there was a Chev Cavalier already in the junction, left turn blinker on, waiting for traffic to clear. The light went yellow, a couple of oncoming cars went through anyhow, there was a gap for the Cavalier, whose driver started forward-leftward, the light went red, a second or so passed, and the driver of an oncoming taxicab (a used-up Taurus or Lumina, as they all were) well far enough away from the light to have come to a completely undramatic stop, instead floored the accelerator—we heard the downshift and engine roar—and barrelled into the junction, then stood on the brakes when he belatedly “realised” his way wasn’t clear. He punched the Cavalier hard. Spun it 270° and put a big dent high on the hood of the taxi.
First thing the taxi driver—from somewhere in the world where traffic laws aren’t really a thing because neither are roads—did was to get up in the faces of people in the vicinity, hollering that he did nothing wrong and they saw nothing, “or else”. Meanwhile, the Cavalier’s occupants were having trouble getting the doors open. They eventually did. They were ambulant, but bloody and obviously hurt. Taxi driver pretended they didn’t exist.
We were in the truck, so we had a high vantage point to see it all. Taxi driver decided it was our turn for him to threaten, then Bill stepped out the truck and taxi driver decided he looked like someone not to mess with.
Police, witness statements, etc. Everyone told the police pretty much exactly what I’ve just described.
Court date: everyone shows up except the taxi driver, who claims he’s sick.
Second court date: everyone shows up except the taxi driver, who claims he’s sick.
Third court date: everyone shows up. Taxi driver is charged with, among other things, running the red light. takes stand. Judge says “What colour was the traffic light when you passed it?” Taxi driver says “Red”. Judge says “Are you sure?” Taxi driver says “Red”. Shitsmear judge says “You’re certain it wasn’t yellow? We need to be sure, because if it was yellow that’s a less serious offence”. Shitsmear taxi driver says “Yellow” and winds up tapped on the wrist with some $25 nothing-charge like failure to exercise adequate caution. Walks away scot-free.
The whole thing took about three minutes (not counting the first two court dates when the taxi driver was “sick”). Witnesses weren’t called on.
What makes these even worse still, is when, due to delays, it takes like a year to get to a first court date. I don’t know what it’s like now during the pandemic and its eventual aftermath.
That’s approximately the same level of anxiety I can build when a Prius or Subaru crowds my “air space.” lol
RE Vanilla Dude, that is.
Not sure if there’s a dime’s worth of difference between careless/disregard-signal/lane-change, depends on local custom.
Dan’s report, Cavalier driver could do nothing about lead-foot cabbie. Could possibly have done some things for himself. Namely, by staying out of cross-path until positively able to clear in one motion.
Sometimes it’s not practical to stay out of an intersection, then especially the “screw a traffic signal” attitude must be embraced. Wait until cross traffic is positively clearly going to stop.
In my so-derided self-reliant narrow world view lol it’s not about who’s rght, but instead about avoidance, so, a green light is considered as nothing more than a casual suggestion to proceed.
I once did a circumnavigation of lake Huron on a motorcycle trip. I was about 25 years old and had no idea about the existence of the Mackinac bridge.
Riding a motorcycle across that was probably the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done. The bike is wandering back and forth because of the grating, I’m trying not to look down or at the surprisingly low guard rails.
After we finished I had to stop at the side of the road and hyperventilate for a while. Never again!
My wife and I just crossed the Big Mac twice in four days. I’ve always loved the bridge’s history and engineering, but I don’t love driving over it because I’m afraid of heights, although it doesn’t bother me as badly as it once did. The bridge itself seems to be getting a workout this year; even the far corners of the UP, such as the Keweenaw Peninsula, are getting pretty crowded during tourist season (we are also tourists, so no judgment).
You oughta see it in February!
I am also somewhat scared of heights. I was in a bus with my church youth group going northbound over the Big Mac in the early ’90s the night a gust of wind blew a Yugo over its side. When I returned home to find out that had happened, I was understandably shaken.
A great article, thank you. I’ve driven across the Golden Gate Bridge and the Mighty Mac. The Mackinac Bridge seemed more intense to me. Maybe it was wind gusts. Normal speed limit on the Mac is 45mph, on gustier days the police would ask all truck drivers and any vehicles with trailers to pull over in groups and then escort them as a group (red lights on!) across the bridge, speed limit about 30-35mph or slower depending on gusts. If it gets too gusty the bridge may be closed until the weather calms down.