The Mighty Mac

Wednesday, October 10th, 2007
St Ignace, Michigan

Today is 40 degrees colder, both anticipated high and low, than Monday. As in 41 degrees at 8 am with an expected high of 44 degrees, with 100% chance of rain – and it’s raining now. And it’s still dark!

OK, a little education today.

I survived the Mackinac Bridge!
This very handsome bridge connects Mackinaw City to St. Ignace, about 5 miles across the Straits of Mackinac (pronounced Mack-i-naw).

(needless to say, I did not climb to the top of the bridge to take this picture - I captured it off a website!)

1. The Straits of Mackinac connect Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. (I always thought they were two separate lakes.)

2. A quick history – “Since 1864, when building a bridge across the straits was first proposed, until November 1, 1957, “Mighty Mac” was known as the “bridge that couldn’t be built.” On that dreadful day, the Upper Peninsula and lower Michigan were permanently tied together. There were more obstacles overcome, and problems solved in designing and building the Mackinac Bridge than any comparable project. Yet it is one of the most beautiful structures ever built. 33 foundations resting on bedrock support the 5 mile long uninterrupted steel superstructure. The 2 huge tower foundations descend more than 200 feet below the water and were built out on the water, using boats, barges and ships, handling the men, machinery and materials.” (from a tourism brochure)

3. Construction cost $99,800,000 – in 1957 dollars!!

4. “The road deck is shaped as an airfoil to provide lift in a cross wind, while the center two lanes are open grid to allow vertical (upward) air flow, which fairly precisely cancels the lift, making the roadway stable in up to the design 150 MPH wind loading.” (This quote is taken from a wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackinac_Bridge ) Personally, I found that ‘open grid’ a bit unnerving, as it made an already shaky ride wobble even more! In the picture above, the white line down the middle of the bridge is a two foot wide raised separation between the lanes of traffic. The dark lanes are the 'open grid'.

5. I can’t find any information about actual wind speeds, but one article mentions that one car went off the bridge due to high winds, estimated at about 60 MPH, but the driver was using “excessive speed”. The maximum speed limit is 45 MPH and heavily loaded trucks are restricted to 20 MPH.

Some of my readers may recall early this summer, when a bracket on one of my slide toppers snapped. A mobile mechanic told me it wouldn’t be a problem, unless I was driving in a high wind, in which case the topper would blow loose and possible tear. When the thing was repaired in Connecticut awhile back, the bracket was not replaced. I know that now because when crossing the bridge in scary high winds yesterday, that damned topper was flapping like crazy! Makes a hell of a racket, and sure raised my blood pressure! Thankfully, it didn’t tear, and opened up just fine when I arrived at my destination a few miles up the road!

6. The toll taker at the far end of the bridge asked, when I commented on the experience, if there had been a ‘guide’ bringing us across. "No." “Oh, then it wasn’t bad today at all!” Wonderful. Turns out the Mackinac Bridge Authority has a "Drivers Assistance Program" too, which provides drivers for those uncomfortable driving across the bridge. Those interested can arrange, either by phone ahead of time or with the toll collector, to have their cars driven to the other end. This is a free service.

7. A Detroit news article giving a very interesting and extensive history of the bridge:

http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=156&category=locations

Next, I must extend my sincere apologies to any I might have offended. It seems the folks who claim this upper chunk of Michigan as home consider it THE Peninsula, as opposed to that little appendage I called a peninsula down state a bit a couple days ago. I meant no harm – I’m just an uneducated “troll”. And for the record, most call it the Upper Peninsula. Anyway, residents of THE Peninsula, “Yoopers”, often refer to Lower Peninsula residents and others as “trolls” simply because they live “below The Bridge.”