| After many 70 years
of dreams, with many different plans for bridging the Straits of Mackinac,
ground breaking to build the Mackinac Bridge took place on May 7
& 8, 1954. The photos on this page are from slides taken by my father,
Lester Stokes, who lived (and still lives) less than a block from the foot
of the Mackinac Bridge in Mackinaw City, and worked on the State Dock which
served the automobile ferries until November 1, 1957, when the Mackinac
Bridge opened and ferry service was discontinued. Most of his photos were
accidentally lost a few years ago, but these few weren't stored with the
others.
Construction of the Mackinac Bridge began with the construction
of the pillars. Caissons were constructed, floated into position and sunk
to provide the footings for the to immense towers which would suspend the
center span of the bridge. Once the caissons were in place, creeper derricks
were added, which raised materials to erect the towers and continued to
climb higher.
The Mackinac Bridge roadway truss sections were assembled
in sections and floated into position to be raised into place.
Constructing the Mackinac Bridge took 48 months, 3,500
workers, 895,000 blueprints & structural drawings, 71,300 tons of structural
steel, 931,000 tons of concrete, 42,000 miles of cable wire, 4,851,700
steel rivets, 1,016,600 steel bolts and 99,800,000 dollars. There were
350 engineers and another 7,500 men & women worked at quarries, shops,
mills and other locations.
When completed, the Mackinac Bridge was the longest suspension
bridge in the world and it is currently the longest suspension bridge in
North & South America and the third longest suspension bridge in the
world.
|
Mackinac Bridge home
Mackinac Bridge groundbreaking 50th Anniversary
50th Anniversary of opening the Mackinac
Bridge
|
