History of The Mackinac Bridge

Since Nov. 1, 1957, when the Mackinac straddle opened to public traffic, the iconic symbol has stood as solemn testimony to mankinds engineering abilities. The Mackinac Bridge is do up of more than one meg tons of cover and steel. Its towers parachute 552 feet above the Straits of Mackinac and reach 210 feet below the waves.From May 7, 1954, until late strike of 1957, about 3,500 laborers bringed in and over the Straits of Mackinac constructing the bridge. The project court the lives of 5 men. In addition, 7,500 people labored in offsite job shops and quarries from Duluth, Minn., to Pittsburgh, welding, forging and aggregation steel, mining rock and mixing concrete. at that place was a total of 85,000 blueprints printed for the grammatical construction of the Mackinac Bridge.Construction began on the bridge on May 7, 1954, following years of view on how to best cross the Straits of Mackinac. Everything from a tunnel to a series of causeways, tunnels and bridges going from Cheboygan to Bois Blanc Island to Round Island to Mackinac Island finally ending in St. Ignace- in advance a single prisonbreak bridge with two towers was lastly chosen.This was made possible because of Steinmans experience with former(a) bridge projects, with it prompted him to encourage cliquish financing for the Mackinac Bridge. The bridge was financed through a unique bond sales compositors case that covered its $100 million cost without using state or public funding. The bonds sold to pay for the Mackinac Bridge were retired July 1, 1986. To anchor the 100 million gross tons of the Mackinac Bridge, man-made mountains were required to be built in 88 feet of water.The anchor blocks- piers 17 and 22-were to become the beginning and end of the worlds protracted suspended span to date. The harbor at St. Ignace became the home base for Merritt-Chapman and Scotts ocean construction equipment, regarded in 1954 as the largest gathering of its type ever assembled for a civilian p roject. St. Ignace was the location for land-based construction of the giant steel foundations and bridge stake pieces.Decompression sickness, or the bends, was a constant threat to the resort of the different who worked in the extremely cold, deep water of the straits. Commonly told among school children an ironworker who bewildered his footing fell to his death. Its said he landed in impudently poured concrete, where his body lies today, preserved beneath the bride connecting the two peninsulas of Michigan.While historians say no iron, worker is encased in concrete, five people did die in accidents related to construction of the bridge. One died when he surfaced too quickly, a welder died when he fell into an underwater retaining structure, a worker fell from a unmindful distance into the water and drowned, and two others fell 550 feet from a catwalk near the conjugation tower, according to the authorities.Of the two workers who fell from the catwalk, one body was recovers immediately and the other was never found. Mackinac Bridge workers, like many workers involved in an yearning high-stakes project, enjoyed a special camaraderie that they still speak of today. There was a feeling of togetherness, of them all being in the same situation, and of beating the odds.There was also a concern for each-others safety and welf be, with many of the men fit life bulky friends. A new record for underwater consolidation of concrete was set in the spring of 1955, when work resumed after a long winter of ice and snow. During the 31 days of May that year, 103,000 cubic yards of concrete were poured into foundations of the Mackinac Bridge.A final step originally the cables were encased in a protective piping was a coat the wire in a corrosive-resistant, red-lead paste. This was through with(p) to protect once morest rust and corrosion, two factors which could seriously compromise the ace of the suspension system. The coating was a terrific success, as annual insp ections through by removing the piping reveal little to no damage done by the forces of nature.Besides the main suspension span, the Mackinac Bridge is really constructed of a series of smaller, conventional bridges that would span many wide, formidable rivers and gorges. The grammatical construction of these linked spans took place for the most part on land. all(prenominal) the work was done within sight of ferryboat passengers, go across for the last 35-minute slip of reputations to begin with they would be able to drive across the new route in less than 10 minutes. Michigans miracle Bridge was becoming a reality.Workers were issued a safety helmet complete with miners light and a life jacket for the boat trip out to the job site. Beyond that, all they took along was their lunch. The men would and then leave the lifejackets on board for the next crew, disregarding the fact that they were operative around very deep water that could be extremely cold.The oecumenic highway a pproach to the bridge was being formed at mackinaw City, where a viaduct took the highway over the villages main street, Central Avenue. The date was July 22, 1957, and intemperate weather delayed the raising of the final piece of Dr. David B. Steinmans geometric disturb to conquer the Straits of Mackinac. That evening, the last section was raised and bolted into place, connecting the steel of a bridge that would tie Michigan together as a state.All suspension bridges are designed to move to accommodate wind, temperature change, and weight. convey to the open grating installed on the middle two lanes of the Mackinac Bridge, the design flexes considerably when necessary. Wind water and snow easily passes through the grates surface.The completed tollhouse and administration building were readied incisively in time for occupancy sooner the Mackinac Bridge opened for business. The last job to get the Mackinac Bridge name for traffic was to coat the concrete traffic lanes with a layer of bituminous asphalt, completed only days before the official opening. Tolls have continuously been a staple of the bridge to offset the costs of construction and maintenance. open on Nov. 1, 1957, tolls were set at $3.25 per passenger vehicle. In 1961, tolls rose to 3.50 and again to $3.75, where they stayed until 1969, when the Legislature passed funding for the authority and tolls were lowered to $1.50 for a passenger vehicle. The cost for traversing the bridge remained at $1.50 until 2005, when it was raised to $2.50, because of increased maintenance costs, Sweeney said.The Mackinac bridge is the third-longest suspension bridge in the world behind the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge in lacquer at 12,826 feet between suspensions and the Great Belt Bridge in Denmark at 8,921 feet. Both bridges opened in 1998. At 8,614 feet between suspensions, the Mackinac Bridge is the longest suspension bridge in the Western Hemisphere.The total distance of the Bridge 28,372 feet. It links Mackin ac City in the Lower Peninsula. At just over five miles, the bridge is long enough to cause any(prenominal) trouble for crossing motorists who fail to fill up their gas tanks before crossing. To keep the bridge looking pristine, workers spend countless hours and use non-finite gallons of cay.Every year we use around 50,000 gallons for spot house painting, said Sweeney. Of the paint used each year, 45,000 gallons of green is used on the lower sections and cables, man 5,000 of ivory is used on the structures. Because of an $80 million maintenance plan, the 50-year-old structure is expected to have an infinite lifespan.Overhead highway lighting was installed to exact nighttime crossings of the bridge safe and enjoyable. The bridge lighting could be seen for miles from either the Mackinaw City or St. Ignace shores, and cable lighting provided a just distinctive accent. One thing that bridge workers did non do before the bridge opened was paint it.The construction schedule dicta ted a November opening, and painters needed warmer temperatures before they could begin the big job of painting much(prenominal) a large structure.On November 1, 1957, traffic officially opened on the Mackinac Bridge. A huge story, the event attracted 150 give-and-takepaper men from passim Michigan and neighboring states that included Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, New York, and Ontario. Only a relative few of the thousands of people attending the celebration were able to watch the fealty of the Mackinac Bridge, held at pier 22, the north anchor block of the bridge, on June 28, 1958.It was in that location that a five-mile length of ribbon was stretched from Mackinaw City at the to the south end and from the St. Ignace shore to the north. The Mackinac Bridge began celebrating the first year it was open by offering the public a chance to walk across the span. The event started as a race-walking activity, but soon became popular with thousands who wanted to fall down the following year and bring their friends with them. On May 9, 2003, the highest wind look sharp ever recorded on the bridge occurred at 408 p.m.The wind gage read 124 miles per hour.Area Bridge sparks questions, myths. Keywords used to find article News paper articles on Mackinac Bridge. Found at the local library. Published in Lansing. Authors are Michael Carney and Capital News Service. It was published Monday, February 26th, 2007.The purpose this source serves for my topic. Gives important dates such as when construction started on the bridge, also goes into detail about the tolls and amounts for crossing the bridge. Michael Carney writes about the work of the Mackinac Bridge. The structure of the document would be an informative news paper article. workings Cited Carney, Michael. Area Bridge Sparks Questions, Myths. The Mining daybook Lansing 26 Feb. 2007 3A. Print. Images of America Mackinac Bridge.Keywords used to find book History of the Mackinac Bridge. Found at Public Lib rary. Published by Arcadia Publishing Charleston SC, Chicago IL Portsmouth NH, San Francisco CA. Author Mike Fornes. Published in 2007. The purpose this source serves me is it gives me the narration for both the bridge and everyone who admirered to build it.Works Cited Fornes, Mike. Mackinac Bridge. Charleston, SC Arcadia, 2007. Print.Area position Marks Big Macs 50th year. Looked up News paper articles on the Mackinac Bridge at the local library. Published in Farwell. I could not find an Author. Published in 2007. The information I pulled from this source help make my introduction to my essay with just enough to get the ratifier to question what all I was going to go into detail about. Works Cited Area Model Marks Big Macs 50th year. The Mining Journal Farwell 28 May. 2007 3A. Print.