Reviewing the building of the Mighty Mac bridge
Within reach of my favorite chair are three or four books at all times. Seldom are they reached for. I get ‘into? a tv show and laziness takes over.
However, on a recent evening I reached for a much abused book given me by a former UPer, Roger Oberg, ‘Straits of Mackinac! Crossroads of the Great Lakes.?
We’ve driven across the Mighty Mac very many times since it was completed in 1957.
Prior to the bridge five ferries trafficked cars across the straights. They could carry 416 cars an hour with an average trip being 53 minutes. During deer hunting season ‘drivers could wait in line 19 hours, playing cards, nap, eat hot dogs, give birth and die,? according to the book.
With the five mile and 22-feet-long bridge 6,000 cars can cross in an hour.
Of course we need some dates: In 1950 the Mackinac Bridge Authority was created by the legislature; January 1953 the Authority selected William Ratigan (author of the book) to design and supervise the construction; Ground was broke in July 1954.
Apparently the biggest concern was not the footings or the span, but resistance to wind. Three testings at the University of Washington Engineering Experiment Station proved the structure could withstand winds of 632, 942 and 966 miles an hour.
Of course, that didn’t satisfy skeptics who kept saying, ‘Wait until a real winter comes along, or maybe just one of those big winds that always leaves a calling card at Mackinac in March or August or November, and your pretty bridge will be nothing but a busted toy!?
The bridge was built to withstand five times the maximum pressure of ice. Foundations for the two main towers go more than 200 feet below water level-through 140 feet of water and 70 feet of overburden.
There is more concrete and tons of steel in the bridge than in the Empire State Building. There are 600,000 barrels of cement, making 440,000 cubic yards of concrete in the 33 water piers.
Dr. David B. Steinman was brought in as consulting engineer. He’d designed and built 300 bridges on five continents, including one in Baghdad, Iraq. It was also part of his challenge to answer the calamity howlers.
In 1956 there were 850 workers on the bridge. The book doesn’t say, but I recall only one life being lost. There are 25,160 individual wires in a pair of suspension bridge cables, two feet in diameter.
The bridge, at just under $100,000, cost more than the U. S. paid for Alaska and Louisiana Territory.
I believe the starting toll on the bridge was $3.50, for cars. Then for several years it was $1.50, and last year it was raised to $2.50. Repairs and upkeep are year around, but only in very high winds is it closed.
It’s a pleasure to cross The Bridge.
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I’ve just got to comment on the choice of words used by our government attorneys, jurists and journalists following the finding of Martha Stewart guilty on four counts. They are saying, ‘This is (or, We are sending) a message to all who lie to our investigators.?
They are saying this conviction will stop all potential wrongdoers. It will put an end to corporate corruption, cheating, falsifications and insider trading.
Right! And the promoters of the death penalty for those convicted of murder, treason and various other crimes said the same thing.

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