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About the Mackinac Bridge

Many said it couldnt be built, but in November 1957 the Mackinac Bridge opened, linking the Upper and Lower Peninsulas. For years, many Michiganians had talked about building such a bridge. The state operated a car ferry, but during the peak periods of tourist and hunting seasons, motorists waited hours to cross the Straits of Mackinac. Governor G. Mennen Williams appointed former U.S. senator Prentiss M. Brown chairman of the Mackinac Bridge Authority. After a long and enormously complicated struggle, a reluctant state legislature supported building a bridge. Construction was funded by $99.8 million in revenue bonds to be paid off by tolls collected from those crossing the bridge. The bridge was designed by David B. Steinman and construction began in 1954. The central suspension span, extending 3,800 feet between the main towers that rise 552 feet above the water, was the second longest such span in the world. The total length of the bridge between the cable anchor-ages is 8,614 feet, leading to the claim that the Mackinac Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world a claim that has been disputed. The Big Mac, as it is commonly called, is one of Michigans best-known attrac-tions. It is also the host of the Labor Day Bridge Walk, which draws sixty thousand participants annually.

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