Since the late nineteenth century people had dreamed of building a bridge to connect Michigan's two peninsulas. Those dreams became a reality in the 1950s when the booming postwar tourism economy and modern highway system made possible the Mackinac Bridge. After three years of construction, the "Mighty Mac" opened on November 1, 1957.
The Mackinac Bridge is a magnificent sculpture of steel, wire and concrete. Two support cables flow like giant waves over the main towers which rise more than 550 feet above the Straits of Mackinac. These cables, composed of thousands of strands of wire tightly wrapped together, are anchored in giant concrete blocks which are 8,614 feet apart, making it the longest single-unit suspension bridge in the western hemisphere.
During deer hunting season before the bridge was built, automobiles lined up from Mackinaw City to Cheboygan - a distance of 15 miles! - waiting to cross the straits in car ferries.
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