Crossed the Mackinaw Bridge for the 1st time last week & WOW what a view!! We had a double rainbow on the east side rain mixed with snow & the sun peeking with golden rays streaking thru here & there. The waves & water current below looked like they were moving against each other creating some interesting waves & swells. Overall AOK experience & should be on your bucket list. What have your Mackinaw Bridge crossings been like?
Your Mackinaw Bridge Stories?
- Thread starter whitedust
- Start date
mezz
Well-known member
Too many to count when I was younger, & about a half dozen times in the past few years, but, love it each time. Especially like it when the opportunity arises to get stopped in traffic at the center, this usually only happens during peak maintenance season, but it is cool to get out & walk around a bit and enjoy the views. One of my Grandfathers was an electrician on the Mighty Mac during it's construction, so it's kind of an honor to me to cross this & imagine him walking the cables installing lights to the towers.-Mezz
Go Fast or Go Home
Active member
Have crossed the bridge countless times. Still always neat to do. Heading down to the lower from Grand Marias and they just closed the bridge due to high winds. Waited four hours then still had to be escorted across, wasn't to happy then.
Go Fast or Go Home
Active member
I was there last Winter and they had the shuttle service in full swing.
polarisrider1
New member
Try it on a motorcycle and ride the grate in high winds! that's always interesting.
anonomoose
New member
First time? Geez....
Wish I had a dollar for each trip across it....could by a nice sled. When I was a boy, churning across in a ferry boat, my dad pointed at the bridge and said, "next year we will use that...." He had many ferry boat trips across, and before the "hunt" folks lined up to get a ride over to "the other side" and waited for hours for the trip. Folks used to fall asleep waiting in line and others behind would "sneak around em" and when they woke nobody said boo....gas stations would have super long hoses to fill passing cars tanks which were running on fumes. It was all done on the "honor" system where you told the guy with the hose, how much you wanted and he would shout to the pump man when to shut off the pump. My uncles all figured that they got cheated a bunch on those types of fill ups.
Course in the early daz of the bridge you could go like a rocket and in true U.P. fashion, they never closed the bridge in windy conditions...if you were fool enough to go across in a blow, you could do it. Then some young thing in a Yugo went zooming over it one late fall nite and went airborne from a good gust of wind over the grates and hooked one of the cables and flug herself off the bridge....and that is when they started playing it safe during blows. I believe there have only been two cars that have gone over the edge in all the accidents that have happened on that bridge....but now if it blows, expect to spend the nite at a local hotel waiting it out.
STill I never tire of going over that bridge...something about hitting the north side that makes your just feel better.
Once after a mackinaw race my younger brother and I decided to just sail over there to go under it just so we could say we did it once. After a hour and a half, we decided that it was too far and turned toward Rogers City and our intended course. Looks like a short jaunt to get over from Mack Island but believe me it will take you half a day to sail over there.
Wish I had a dollar for each trip across it....could by a nice sled. When I was a boy, churning across in a ferry boat, my dad pointed at the bridge and said, "next year we will use that...." He had many ferry boat trips across, and before the "hunt" folks lined up to get a ride over to "the other side" and waited for hours for the trip. Folks used to fall asleep waiting in line and others behind would "sneak around em" and when they woke nobody said boo....gas stations would have super long hoses to fill passing cars tanks which were running on fumes. It was all done on the "honor" system where you told the guy with the hose, how much you wanted and he would shout to the pump man when to shut off the pump. My uncles all figured that they got cheated a bunch on those types of fill ups.
Course in the early daz of the bridge you could go like a rocket and in true U.P. fashion, they never closed the bridge in windy conditions...if you were fool enough to go across in a blow, you could do it. Then some young thing in a Yugo went zooming over it one late fall nite and went airborne from a good gust of wind over the grates and hooked one of the cables and flug herself off the bridge....and that is when they started playing it safe during blows. I believe there have only been two cars that have gone over the edge in all the accidents that have happened on that bridge....but now if it blows, expect to spend the nite at a local hotel waiting it out.
STill I never tire of going over that bridge...something about hitting the north side that makes your just feel better.
Once after a mackinaw race my younger brother and I decided to just sail over there to go under it just so we could say we did it once. After a hour and a half, we decided that it was too far and turned toward Rogers City and our intended course. Looks like a short jaunt to get over from Mack Island but believe me it will take you half a day to sail over there.
kennybtrail1
New member
My most rememberable trip would have to be when I took a 130,000 LB 16' wide load across it. That trip was a little bit like a circus dealing with the bridge authority.
I've been across in a car and on motorcycles( 2 wheeler and a trike) many times.
When I was a kid my dad used to take the family across Lake Michigan on the SS Badger from Manitowoc to Ludington.
Then drive up to the bridge, cross over it.
Then we would stay at St Ignace for the weekend, touring around town and go out to the Island.
The year I was 16 years old and had my drivers licenses, my dad let me drive across the Big Bridge.
I never forget the thrill of it.
When I was a kid my dad used to take the family across Lake Michigan on the SS Badger from Manitowoc to Ludington.
Then drive up to the bridge, cross over it.
Then we would stay at St Ignace for the weekend, touring around town and go out to the Island.
The year I was 16 years old and had my drivers licenses, my dad let me drive across the Big Bridge.
I never forget the thrill of it.
Oh you betcha!
I was lucky enough(?) to experience crossing the straits by train in the 1940's (the Michigan Central from Detroit to Mackinaw City, then the railroad ferry, and then westbound from St. Iggy on the D.S.S.& A. ("Damn Slow Service and Abuse"). Then finally the car ferries, including the (click →) Vacationland, the last car ferry, in the 1950s …
I have such vivid childhood memories of those hours-long waits on the docks and the crossings in dad's ol' 1950 Mercury 4 door fat salami er… sedan, ahhh, what a luxurious old land yacht that was! (similar to this, suicide doors and all, but dark green):
Those long hours spent on the docks in the summer … with a 'picnic in the park'(-ing lot) — mom used to pack a lunch — and occasionally a vendor would come by selling, yes … pasties!
(Photo courtesy of Pasty Cam)
Then there were the deer season trips, trying to stay warm on the even longer waits in weather conditions far less conducive to picnicking!
In busier times they pressed the old railroad ferries into service as backups to help move the large numbers of cars waiting to cross.
Great memories, and I'm glad I was there, but I sure don't miss those ferry crossings, particularly not choking on that black smoke on that ol' coal burning converted railroad ferry, the (click →) Chief Wawatam. See also, (click →) Chief Wawatam, by Bob Strauss.
In my never humble opinion that old hand fired coal-burning tub was the most notorious of the ferries. I suspect that firing those three coal burning triple expansion engines by hand would have qualified as a real "Dirty Job"! (Sounds a bit like firing the Titanic!)
As a youngster, I used to find the Chief quite intimidating — I used to nearly jump out of my skin when they laid on her steam whistle. (Whistle? That hardly describes her incredibly loud, deep bass note; you could really feel it in your bones.) And oh did the Chief ever belch copious volumes of the foulest, blackest coal smoke you could imagine — especially when instead of rising, that foul smoke just swirled around and curled across her decks. Gag, choke. Yuck!
Never been across by ferry but usally cross the bridge 6-12 times a year, Had to wait 2 winters ago when they had the highest recorded wind gust at something like 96mph it even made the weather channel, by motorcycle is by far the funnest. My Dad and Grandpa used to cross by ferry heading up to deer camp, Dad always had stories about running out of gas waiting and having to put Coleman fuel in to get to the gas station
Bradzooooooo
Bradzooooooo
mjkaliszak
New member
Well, I have only crossed the bridge since 94. Starting around 2000/2001 I would take the kids w/ sleds. We used to roll all the truck windows down and let the wind blow thru, and look over the edge, best we could anyways... Have had to wait several times to be escorted or drive along side a tractor trailer. That is the best I can do with stories.
anonomoose
New member
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Firecatguy
New member
ya Buddy....the first time for me was with you.....old hat now..lol...last time had Segar on the radio with 80deg and sunny....no wind..
anonomoose
New member
Sailing along behind a freighter was not a good idea either. Pumping bilge water and waste right into the lake was reason enough to stay out of the wake of any lake going boat or it would scum up the hull and the smell was not pleasant.
Dilution was the solution to pollution.....ah for the good ole daz!
- - - Updated - - -
Check out the motorcycle thugs!
Dilution was the solution to pollution.....ah for the good ole daz!
- - - Updated - - -
Check out the motorcycle thugs!
Countless crossings on the bridge but one that I will never forget was in March of 1994.
A friend and I were coming back from a day of riding in the UP. As we were coming through the toll booths a State cop went past headed South with lights and sirens on. As we approached the center of the bridge the cop was pulled over and he was leaning over the railing looking down at something. As we got close my buddy says holy sh_t, there is a guy riding a mountain bike across the ice! I assume that the bike rider made it as we never heard a thing about it.
I have been trailered across numerous times by the Bridge Authority as we ride sleds from our home in the Northern Lower to the UP at least once a year.
According to the guys that work for the Authority there are people that commit suicide fairly often by jumping off the bridge. They do not publicize it in hopes that more do not get the idea.
A friend and I were coming back from a day of riding in the UP. As we were coming through the toll booths a State cop went past headed South with lights and sirens on. As we approached the center of the bridge the cop was pulled over and he was leaning over the railing looking down at something. As we got close my buddy says holy sh_t, there is a guy riding a mountain bike across the ice! I assume that the bike rider made it as we never heard a thing about it.
I have been trailered across numerous times by the Bridge Authority as we ride sleds from our home in the Northern Lower to the UP at least once a year.
According to the guys that work for the Authority there are people that commit suicide fairly often by jumping off the bridge. They do not publicize it in hopes that more do not get the idea.
Having crossed the bridge since I was a little child camping with the family, I probably been across 200 times at least. The memory I'll never forget was when a buddy and me spent a weekend @ the bars in Soo, Canada (young drinkers) and he had to be back to TC. @ 6:00am for work. We were crossing the bridge around 3:00am and since there was nobody around, we stopped on one of the big concrete piers (where the cops park). Absolutely no wind or traffic. Dropped a penny down; and many seconds later you could hear it hit the water. Kinda freaky.
